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Book ,Tj 3 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



I 



The Child and His Religion 



The Child and His 
Religion 



BY 

GEORGE E. DAWSON, PH.D. 

Professor of Psychology 
Hartford School of Religious Pedagogy 



CHICAGO 

THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 

1909 



^ 



-02 



Copyright 1909 By 
The University of Chicago 



Published October 1909 



•2'4&T09 



Composed and Printed By 

The University of Chicago Press 

Chicago, Illinois, U. S. A, 



^ 



TO 

MY WIFE AND CHILDREN, WHO, THROUGHOUT 
THE YEARS, HAVE SUPPLIED MOST OF THE IN- 
SPIRATION, AND MUCH OF THE MATERIAL, OF MY 
THOUGHT, THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED 



PREFACE 

The material of this book is largely drawn from 
magazine articles and addresses already given to 
the public. Chap, iii, on "Children's Interest in 
the Bible," is substantially the same as originally 
published in the Pedagogical Seminary for July, 1900, 
Vol. VII. The other chapters present in modified 
form the material contained in various articles and 
addresses. Friends of the writer have expressed the 
wish that this material might be put in more acces- 
sible form, and there has been a certain public demand 
for the article on "Children's Interest in the Bible." 
Herein lies the reason for publishing the book. 

In bringing this material together for publication 
in book form, no hope has been cherished of making 
it a finished product. The book lacks unity, but 
it is believed that the various chapters discuss topics 
that have a certain relationship, through the central 
aim of the writer to bring the so-called natural 
processes of life and education into harmony with 
the religious processes. If the book appears some- 
what controversial in places, it is a fault of style 
rather than of spirit. The writer's acquaintance 
with the unsettled conditions of religious and educa- 
tional thought of the present is too intimate to allow 
of his being a dogmatist. The book is given out 
in the hope that it may help to strengthen the reli- 
gious and educational views of those who agree with 



viii Preface 



it, that it may provoke a friendly comparison of 
judgments from those who do not agree with it, and 
that it may stimulate all its readers to think out for 
themselves the problem of religious education. 

The writer is grateful for permission, generously 
given by President G. Stanley Hall, editor of the 
Pedagogical Seminary, to reproduce the article on 
"Children's Interest in the Bible." 

George E. Dawson 

Springfield, Mass. 
October i, 1908 



CONTENTS 
CHAPTER I 

PAGE 

Interest as a Measure of Values .... i 

Interest and the educational reformers; Herbart's 
doctrine of interest; The biological conception of in- 
terest; The sequence of interests; Atrophy of inter- 
ests; Opposition to the doctrine of interest; Study of 
children's interests in secular education; Interest and 
religious education. 

CHAPTER II 
The Natural Religion of Children ... 25 

Natural religion and the doctrine of interest in educa- 
tional history; Science and natural religion; Animism 
in children; The sense of causality; The instinct of 
immortality; The faith and good-will of children. 

CHAPTER III 
Children's Interest in the Bible .... 53 

The Bible and religious education; Children's choice 
between the Old and the New Testament; Choice 
among the books of the Bible; Choice of Bible scenes, 
stories, and characters; Development of interest in 
Jesus; Conclusions. 

CHAPTER IV 
The Problem of Religious Education ... 99 

Complexity of the problem; Suggestions from secular 
education; The aim of religious education; The 
material of religious education; The method of reli- 
gious education; Conclusion. 

Index 121 



CHAPTER I 
INTEREST AS A MEASURE OF VALUES 

The economy of interest in education has for 
centuries attracted the attention of educators. Long 
before it was definitely formulated by Herbart as a 
pedagogical doctrine, it had a prominent place in 
the thought both of educational theorists and of 
practical teachers. In fact, its history is a part of 
the general movement of educational reform, begun 
by Rabelais in the sixteenth century, and still work- 
ing itself out in current civilization. It is in the 
light of this general movement in educational history 
that we may best understand the origin and signifi- 
cance of interest as an educational doctrine. 

Interest and the educational reformers. — The early 
educational reformers revolted against the dogmatic 
and artificial education of their time — with its 
enslavement to books and routine instruction, its 
stress upon formal discipline, and its repression of 
children's individuality. Varying from generation 
to generation, the issues raised by these men have 
been the centers of controversy down to the present 
time. Many of them are still unsettled. V^hat 
is called the "New Education" is still making its 
demands for more modern branches of study, more 
practical preparation for life, and a more liberal 
regime of scholarship and discipline. What is 



The Child and His Religion 



called the "Old Education" is still contending for 
the classical languages and mathematics, formal 
discipline, and academic standards of learning and 
instruction generally. But throughout these cen- 
turies of controversy and change, the motive force 
of educational reform has not been primarily peda- 
gogical. It has been rather the impulse springing 
from a changed attitude toward human life. The 
fundamental characteristic of the first educational 
reformers was their respect and reverence for the 
natural, spontaneous tendencies of the soul. They 
challenged the age-long assumption that human 
nature was evil in its constitution, and that the begin- 
ning and end of education was to destroy the natural 
qualities, and create, in their stead, a character 
radically different. They brought to light not 
merely, or chiefly, a larger understanding of the 
human soul, but more especially a larger faith in its 
intrinsic worth. Here is the origin of the view that 
the natural interests of children are worthy of respect, 
and that they should be taken into account in all 
educational programmes. Moreover, it is probably 
true, in the main, that from Rabelais to the present 
time men's attitude toward the problem of interest 
has been primarily determined by what they have 
thought of human nature. It has been a measure 
of their faith in the innate goodness and sanity of 
man's life. 

The period of civilization during which the old, 
formal system of education was established is 



Interest as a Measure of Values 3 

identical with what has been called "The Age of 
Faith." But this faith was narrowly limited in its 
outlook. It did not include human nature in its 
survey, nor the objects and forces of the material 
world. The men who shaped the early systems of 
Christian education and philosophy had little rever- 
ence for what is natural and spontaneous in man's 
life. They believed that the natural inclinations 
were wrong, and that they must be changed into 
harmony with the arbitrary ideals of human life that 
had become standardized in the theological and 
philosophical thought of the time. It was therefore 
not only absurd but dangerous to base the control of 
life, in any degree, upon natural desires and capa- 
cities. 

The type of education resulting from such an 
estimate of human nature is well described in these 
words of Professor Monroe : 

The old conception of education aimed to remake the 
nature of the child by forcing upon him the traditional or 
customary way of thinking, of doing, and even of emotional 
reaction; to substitute for the instinctive or natural reaction 
of the child those artificial reactions developed through many 
generations of religious, intellectual, and social formalism. 
Human affections were evil, and hence the heart was to be 
separated from the objects of natural desire. Human senses 
were untrustworthy, and hence could not be made the basis 
of knowledge or of instruction. Human inclinations and in- 
stincts, springing from a nature depraved in its essence, 
were toward the evil and were to be eradicated. Natural 
interests, as expressions of the nature which both education 
and religion sought to repress and make over, were to be 



The Child and His Religion 



shunned in all educational processes. To the extent that an 
activity or task was difficult to perform intellectually and was 
distasteful emotionally, to this extent it possessed educational 
value. The first step in the moral education was to "break 
the will of the child," which in its perverseness but represented 
the evil of hiunan nature. This was to be followed in his 
social and moral education by the constant effort to mold the 
child into the artificial forms of conduct wherein a real and 
natural motive was hidden in formal behavior satisfactory to 
the judgment of the adult, even though it might conceal a 
motive contradictory to the external expression.^ 

This is the type of education satirized by Rabelais 
in his Garganttca, where he makes his bookish hero 
spend five years and three months in learning his 
letters so well that he could repeat them in every 
possible order; thirteen years, six months, and two 
weeks more in learning to read a variety of Latin 
authors, as unintelligible as they were uninteresting 
to him; eighteen years and eleven months in master- 
ing the conamentaries of certain learned scholastics 
so that he could say them over either forward or 
backward and understand them as well one way 
as the other; and, finally, sixteen years and two 
months in learning various formulae for computing 
the age of the moon and the recurrence of religious 
festivals. It is against this type of education, too, 
that Rabelais' larger and more genial faith in human 
nature protests when he takes Gargantua away from 
the books and pedantry of scholastic instruction and 
sends him into the fields to study the creatures and 

I Textbook in the History of Education, p. 566. 



Interest as a Measure of Values 5 

forces of nature; into the workshops to learn the 
structure of wood, stone, and metals, and the process 
of their manufacture; and out upon the playground 
to secure vigor of body and mind through free and 
spontaneous exercise in the open air. 

Of the same spirit of protest was Montaigne, 
another French educational reformer of the sixteenth 
century. Says this writer: 

The thing a boy should learn is not what the old authors 
say, but what he himself ought to do when he becomes a 
man. Wisdom, not knowledge! We may become learned 
from the learning of others; wise we can never be except by 
our own wisdom. We are truly learned from knowing the 
present, not from knowing the past. And yet we toil only 
to stuff the memory and leave the conscience and the imder- 
standing void. Like birds who fly abroad to forage for grain 
and bring it home in their beak, without tasting it themselves, 
to feed their young, so our pedants go picking knowledge 
here and there out of various authors, and hold it at their 
tongue's end, only to spit it out and distribute it amongst 
their pupils.^ 

So, too, Comenius, the great Moravian bishop and 
educator, whose system of instruction was based 
upon the broadest possible appeal to the natural 
impulses of the soul. He was the first to see, in a 
large comprehensive way, that the content and 
method of education ought to be made significant 
and attractive to children. He would consider the 
fundamental desires of the mind, and shape these 
into an eagerness for learning in every possible way. 

I Du pedantisme, Book J, chap. xxiv. 



The Child and His Religion 



The parents should praise learning and learned men, 
show children beautiful books, and treat teachers 
with respect. The teacher should be kind and 
fatherly, should distribute praise and reward judi- 
ciously, and should always, where possible, keep 
beautiful and attractive objects before the child. 
The school buildings should be light, airy, and 
cheerful, and well furnished with apparatus, as 
pictures, maps, models, and collections of specimens. 
The subjects taught should not be too hard for 
the learner's comprehension, and the more enter- 
taining parts of them should be especially dwelt 
upon. The method should be natural, and every- 
thing that is not essential to the subject or is 
beyond the pupil should be omitted. The whole 
philosophy of interest as affecting the spirit and 
method of education is summed up in these words 
of Comenius: 

Education should be conducted without blows, rigour, or 
compulsion, as gently and pleasantly as possible, and in the 
most natural manner (just as a living body increases in size 
without any straining or forcible extension of the limbs; since 
if food, care, and exercise are properly supplied, the body 
grows and becomes strong, gradually, imperceptibly, and of 
its own accord. In the same way I maintain that nutriment, 
care, and exercise, prudently supplied to the mind, lead it 
naturally to wisdom, virtue and piety). The education given 
should not be false but real, not superficial but thorough; 
that is to say, the rational animal, man, should be guided not by 
the intellects of other men, but by his own; should not merely 
read the opinions of others and grasp their meaning or commit 
them to memory and repeat them, but should himself pene- 



Interest as a Measure of Values 7 

trate to the root of things and acquire the habit of genuinely 
understanding and making use of what he leams.^ 

This spirit of reverence for what is elemental 
and natural in human life, and disposition to be 
guided by it in directing the education of children, is 
shared by all the great educational reformers. It 
separates them by centuries from the contemporary 
philosophers and theologians, and makes them 
prophets not only of a new education but also of a 
new philosophy of life. As a general attitude, or 
type of faith, it culminates, perhaps, in Rousseau. 
This writer, however erratic and unbalanced he may 
have been, nevertheless said the things that needed 
to be said to his generation. To a man of Rousseau's 
sensibilities, contemplating the French civilization 
of the eighteenth century, with its formalism in edu- 
cation and religion, and its veneer of cant and hypoc- 
risy covering every possible corruption in civic and 
social life, the opening words of his Entile may well 
have seemed literally true: "Everything is good as it 
comes from the hands of the Author of Nature, but 
everything degenerates in the hands of man." This 
sentence epitomizes Rousseau's philosophy of educa- 
tion. Man perverts and spoils everything he lays 
his hands upon. He goes forth with his ignorant 
conceit, and his false theories of what ought to be 
done, and he mars the fair face of Nature wherever 
he touches it. There is nothing to do but stop this 
sort of thing; revere nature; watch her ways; help 

I The Great Didaciic, chap. xii. 



8 The Child and His Religion 

her betimes, but, for the most part, let her alone; 
at any rate, keep out of her way. All that other 
educational reformers had felt, and expressed in 
terms more or less general, about the natural worth 
of the human soul, and the educational economy of 
making use of its interests, Rousseau literally burned 
into the minds and hearts of his own and succeeding 
generations, by his impassioned eloquence. 

Herbarfs doctrine of interest. — But it remained for 
Herbart, the German psychologist, to think out the 
mental values of interest, and to formulate them into 
an educational doctrine. It is here as elsewhere in 
human experience. Men grope their way through 
feeling and conviction to a rational explanation and 
justification of what they have felt and believed. 
Rabelais and Montaigne felt instinctively the worth 
of what is original and spontaneous in human nature. 
In Comenius and Rousseau this feeling became 
crystallized into a definite conviction. Now, at the 
hands of Herbart, interest was given a rational 
explanation, and assigned its place in educational 
economy. Herbart regarded education as essen- 
tially a process of assimilating new experience in such 
a way as to unify the mental content and make it 
meaningful and effective. This process he called 
apperception; and the feeling-accompaniment of 
apperception, the thing that makes experience signifi- 
cant and so capable of being assimilated, he called 
interest. Interest for Herbart thus becomes the 
center of educational effort. It is the mainspring of 



Interest as a Measure of Values g 

attention, memory, and all other mental activities 
involved in education. If the subject-matter and 
methods of instruction fall within the limits of a 
child's interests, he will give his attention to the 
instruction and assimilate its content. Efficient 
mental activity is not otherwise possible in education. 
The biological conception of interest. — From the 
point of view of psychological analysis, little has been 
added to Herbart's conception of interest. Various 
disciples have worked out his views in greater detail, 
and some have enlarged upon them in the direction 
of a more comprehensive view of interest. The 
tendency of Herbart's disciples, however, has been 
to emphasize the more conscious and intellectual 
phases of interest, as was the case with Herbart 
himself. Their reasoning upon this subject has been 
guided essentially by psychological standards. With 
the development of the biological sciences, however, 
and their application to the study of mental growth 
in the lower animals, primitive races, and children, 
new light has been shed upon the problem of interest. 
It is beginning to be seen that interest is not funda- 
mentally a psychological function at all, but a bio- 
logical function. It is not primarily a mental activity 
having for its object the assimilation of knowledge. 
It is rather a reaction of the whole life, consciously or 
unconsciously, in the direction of those adjustments 
that insure survival. From this point of view, 
interest may be defined as biological responsiveness. 
This responsiveness may include every degree of con- 



lo The Child and His Religion 

sciousness, from the most elementary to the most 
complex. Just as human activities range from the 
reflex to the fully conscious, and just as every spon- 
taneous activity is directed by that responsiveness to 
stimuli that are economical, so does interest enter 
into every possible adaptation. It is just as narrow 
a conception of interest to limit it to conscious feeling 
of values, as some writers have done, as it is to limit 
mental activity as a whole to conscious processes. It 
may be said that there is no practical advantage for 
education in thus making interest extend beyond 
the limits of intellectual perception. But there is a 
very great advantage. The entire question of indi- 
rect, or unconscious, education — of the influence of 
environment, automatically and instinctively reacted 
to; of suggestion and imitation — hinges upon uncon- 
scious interest. 

The mechanism of interest conceived as biological 
responsiveness is the organic life, and, more espe- 
cially, the nervous system. Herein are stored up the 
experiences of the race that are most significant for 
human survival, and these racial experiences come 
to light now in the primary reflexes, now in instincts, 
and now in the gropings of the intellect. Thus it is 
that the new-born child makes just the reactions to 
its environment that are necessary, and through such 
reflex, or automatic, activities its interests are satis- 
fied. Thus it is that the older child, half-consciously, 
through such instincts as fear, sympathy, and play, 
reacts to its environment according to the demands 



Interest as a Measure 0} Values 1 1 

of its nature, and so satisfies its interests. And thus, 
too, the adult man or woman, cSLvrying forward the 
reflex and instinctive activities and interests of the 
earher years, adds the conscious, rationally directed 
activities, and so satisfies his or her interests as 
intellectually perceived. 

The sequence of interests. — We have here a sug- 
gestion that the interests of life appear in a certain 
order, or sequence, just as the needs and activities 
appear with which they are correlated. Thus the 
child lives first in a world of reflex and instinctive 
experience. Its interests are confined to physical 
comfort, to eating and sleeping, to its fears, its 
repugnances, its sympathies. Then is added the 
world of sense and motor experience, and its interests 
widen with its tactual, visual, and auditory sensa- 
tions. Finally, there is opened up to it the world of 
ideal relations — of imagination, reason, and con- 
science — and its interests become intellectual, artistic, 
and moral. An iflustration of the paraflelism between 
interest and organic development is seen in the 
child's learning to walk. As the motor centers 
controlling the movements necessary to walking 
mature, the child becomes keenly interested in every 
activity that increases his ability to walk. So it is 
with talking. The speech centers in the brain, and 
the nervous and muscular mechanism of the vocal 
organs, reach a certain stage of development, and 
the child becomes interested in making sounds, 
imitating the language of others, and so of acquiring 



12 The Child and His Religion 

the power of speech. Still more striking is the 
illustration seen in the ripening of sexual interests. 
Parallel with the functioning of the sexual centers in 
the spinal cord and brain, and the changes in general 
organic development, there appears a vast complex 
of automatic and instinctive tendencies, which 
involve some of the most powerful interests in human 
life. The entire attitude toward the opposite sex is 
changed. New habits of dress, new manners, and 
new modes of social activity are formed. Ambitions 
and the very ideals of life are modified, and the whole 
world takes on a different shading in its values. 

The atrophy of interest. — As a corollary of this law 
of sequence in interests, there is a law of decay, or 
atrophy, of interests. As with other functions of 
life, if an interest is not satisfied, it will tend to grow 
feebler and finally disappear. This atrophy of 
interests is surest and quickest in its results when the 
interest first manifests itself. Thus a newly hatched 
chick will peck at everything that suggests food. 
Its reflex nervous mechanism is ripe for pecking, and 
it has the associated pecking interest. But if the 
chick is prevented from pecking for a few days, it 
will lose both the power of pecking and the interest 
in doing so. Thereafter, food must be put into its 
mouth to keep it alive. When a child has reached 
a certain stage of development, it shows an interest 
in trying to stand on its feet and walk. If, for any 
reason it is prevented from doing so, the interest will 
gradually diminish and may in time fade out entirely. 



Interest as a Measure of Values 13 

This is illustrated in the so-called wild children/ 
who, being deprived in early life of human compan- 
ionship, have not had the example of upright posture 
and locomotion. I once saw a little girl of three 
years who was unable to walk or even stand alone. 
She would make no attempt to do either and seemed 
to have absolutely no interest in getting up on her 
feet or walking. The child seemed perfectly well, 
and her parents had become very anxious about her. 
Inquiry revealed the fact that when she was nine 
months old, the little girl had been injured by a fall, 
and had been kept very closely confined for six 
months, at first in her crib and later in a high chair, 
never being allowed to stand on her feet. When she 
was at last put upon the floor, she began her creeping 
just as she had been in the habit of doing six months 
before. Nor did she show any disposition to do 
otherwise than creep, even after her strength had 
been fully recovered. It required several months of 
careful attention on the part of the parents, in exer- 
cising her in standing and walking, to awaken any 
interest whatsoever in these activities. This law 
of atrophy through disuse undoubtedly operates 
throughout the entire range of human interests, not 
only in those interests more closely related to organic 
life, but also in the intellectual, moral, and religious 
interests. It is manifestly of great concern to par- 
ents and others who have the care of children that 
all normal interests be given a chance to function at 

I Cf. Cornish, Animals at Work and Play, pp. 315-23. 



14 The Child and His Religion 

the right time and in the right way. There can be 
no question that intellectual sluggishness and moral 
and religious indifference are frequently due to an 
atrophy of interest at those periods of life when the 
intellectual, moral, and religious ideas and feelings 
are awakening. It is probably a literal scientific fact 
that a child's interest in God or some phase of moral 
conduct is as completely subject to the law of atrophy 
as the chick's pecking interest or the child's interest 
in walking. 

The biological view of interest, therefore, identifies 
it with the vital needs of life. Interest is a measure 
of survival values. The interested individual lives 
and grows; the uninterested individual dies. That 
subject-matter in education and those methods of 
instruction that lay hold upon the interests of chil- 
dren, promote life and growth. That subject-matter, 
those methods of instruction that do not lay hold 
upon the interests of children, produce arrest of 
development and death. Thus does a scientific 
estimate of the primary economy of interest confirm 
the instinctive convictions of the educational re- 
formers. The protest of these men against a view 
of life, and a type of education, that regarded human 
nature as intrinsically evil, and the great elemental 
interests of the soul as false and dangerous, was not 
only broadly human and sympathetic; it was also 
true. 

Opposition to the doctrine of interest. — If, then, the 
doctrine of interest in education has the sanction of 



Interest as a Measure of Values 15 

four centuries of educational reform; if, according 
to Herbart and his followers, it is indispensable to 
the mental processes involved in education; and if, 
according to biological psychology, it is an index of 
the significance and value of experience, how comes 
it that it is still vigorously opposed as a principle of 
education and conduct? One reason, and the 
principal one, has already been given. Real interest 
is fundamentally a natural reaction of the soul. It 
therefore comes under condemnation along with 
everything else that belongs to the category of the 
natural. As we have found, there was a time in the 
history of Christian civilization when human nature 
was regarded as utterly vile and depraved. It is 
less than two hundred years since Jonathan Edwards, 
the greatest of American theologians, said: "God 
has laid himself under no obligation, by any promise, 
to keep any natural man out of hell one moment. 
Natural men are held in the hand of God over the 
pit of hell. They have deserved the fiery pit and are 
already sentenced to it."^ Such a view of human 
nature is certainly sufficient to account for much of 
the antagonism toward the doctrine of interest. To 
a man who thought thus of the "natural man," any 
suggestion that the spontaneous interests of children, 
who are in the highest degree natural, are significant 
guides in their care and training, would seem little 
short of blasphemous. While the conception of 
human nature as a thing intrinsically evil is rapidly 

I Sermon on "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." 



1 6 The Child and His Religion 

fading from the modern mind, there are still some 
people, influential in intellectual and social life, who 
talk about education and parental government as 
though they believed in innate depravity. And 
there are not a few men and women who evince a 
lurking suspicion that it is not safe to trust the lead- 
ings of a boy's interests either in education or every- 
day conduct. 

But a belief in innate depravity is not usually given 
as a reason for rejecting the doctrine of interest. The 
more conmion one is, that to consult the interests of 
children means to follow the lines of least resistance, 
and this means to weaken the will. This reason 
assumes that if a task is interesting the effort put 
forth in its execution will be less. But the fact is 
that interest increases effort. A classic illustration 
of this truth is the play of children. Play in the 
child's life realizes completely the idea of many- 
sided interest, and yet it is just the form of activity 
that calls forth the most complete self-expression and 
stimulates the greatest effort. Everybody who has 
observed the plays of children knows that a healthy, 
enthusiastic boy on the playground is tireless and 
indefatigable in his efforts. A like principle holds 
in the work of adults. What man in practical 
life believes that his efforts are greater and more 
sustained if his work is uninteresting and dis- 
tasteful to him? Quite the opposite is true. 
Edison, the inventor, is probably one of the 
hardest workers in America, and he is probably 



Interest as a Measure of Values 1 7 

one of the most completely absorbed in the interest 
of his tasks. 

From the point of view of education, the fact that 
a study is interesting is not proof that it diminishes 
effort. Interest is indissolubly bound up with atten- 
tion, and, as Professor James contends, attention is 
the center of will. Interest, indeed, does not pro- 
duce the effortless dawdlers in schoolrooms, as every 
practical teacher knows. It is the indifferent pupils, 
the uninterested ones, that dawdle over their work; 
and it is just these who are apt to suffer in a deteriora- 
tion of will. The truth is there is no really effective 
effort in education, or elsewhere, without a deep, 
fundamental interest in the work. Interest, indeed, 
economizes energy and makes a task easier. But 
this does not mean that effort is less intense while 
the task lasts. It means the contrary. And when 
the task is completed in less time, and with a less 
expenditure of energy, there is time and energy 
available for other tasks. No small amount of 
human energy has been wasted in trying to achieve 
the merit of lifeless drudgery; and not a few failures 
in human life have been due to choosing for children 
the path of greatest resistance simply because it was 
the most difficult. 

This is no plea for shirking a disagreeable task. 
Things must be done sometimes that seem uninter- 
esting and cruelly hard. But if the life has been 
made strong through achieving its ends along the 
lines of its desires, it will face the occasional hard and 



1 8 The Child and His Religion 

uninteresting tasks in the joy of mastering difficul- 
ties. On the other hand, if a child is trained under 
a regime of uninteresting tasks, if it is kept involved 
in difficulties for the sake of inuring it to hardships, 
its spirit will suffer from an atrophy of desires, 
its life will lack motive and intensity, and while it 
may go through the hard crises of life uncomplain- 
ingly and with what seems to be the spirit of a martyr, 
its fortitude will be due not so much to heroism as to 
apathy. 

But there is another reason assigned for rejecting 
the doctrine of interest. It is asserted that some 
interests are undeniably bad. This is true, but such 
interests come under the general law of perverted 
fimctions and are quite apart from the normal 
standards of life. I have defined interest as "bio- 
logical responsiveness." That is to say, it is a func- 
tion correlated with every vital process. If, then, 
any vital process be perverted, the interests correlated 
with such process will also be perverted. Thus 
there are nutritive interests associated with the 
process of nutrition. The child craves food, and, 
under normal conditions, this craving has correlated 
with it interests that are healthy. But through some 
perversion of the nutritive process, either hereditary 
or acquired, or through some ill-advised gratification 
of appetite that has excited nervous sensations which 
have resulted in a perversion of appetite, it may 
crave food that is harmful. In such case, its nutri- 
tive interests will be abnormal. Or, again, there 



Interest as a Measure of Values 19 

are interests associated with the child's emotional 
life, as those correlated with fear, anger, love, etc. 
Thus the child craves the companionship and affec- 
tion of other children, and, under normal conditions, 
its craving is a healthy one. But there may be 
some twist in its affectional life. It may be too 
affectionate, or its affections may seek an outlet 
through wrong channels. In such case, the child's 
social interests will be abnormal. So it is with all 
the various classes of interest. Intrinsically, they 
are all good. Bad interests are perverted or diseased 
forms, and the cure lies not in suppression, but in 
seeking out the cause of the perversion and removing 
it. A boy's interest in athletics, for instance, or a 
girl's interest in dress, to such a degree that their 
high-school work is interfered with, cannot be most 
satisfactorily regulated by attempting to eradicate 
it. It is primarily a healthy interest, and has become 
harmful only through excess. The remedy lies in 
discovering the causes of this excess and removing 
them. 

Study of children's interest in secular education. — 
The doctrine of interest has now been so generally 
accepted by progressive secular educators, that the 
branches ordinarily taught in the public schools are 
being scrutinized in a new light. The entire ques- 
tion as to the choice and gradation of lesson-material 
is being reopened. Both educational experts, and 
teachers practically engaged in schoolroom work, are 
testing in various ways the educational values of the 



20 The Child and His Religion 

subjects taught and their adaptation to the different 
levels of feeling and intelligence. Thus the ele- 
mentary interests of children in the qualities of 
objects, such as use^ action, color, form, and the like 
have been studied by Binet/ Barnes/ and Shaw.3 
The distribution of interests among the subjects of 
the public-school curriculum has been studied by 
Taylor. 4 Children's interests in the reading-matter 
of the school curriculum, as well as their general 
literary interests, have been studied by Wissler,^ 
Miss Chase, ^ and Kirkpatrick.7 Miss Ward^ has 
studied the geographical interests; Mrs. Barnes,^ 
the historical interests; and Miss Gates, ^° the musical 
interests. Play interests have been studied by Presi- 
dent Hall," Ellis and Hall,^^ Gulick,^^ Mrs. Burke,^^ 
and others. The puzzle interest, as showing the 

1 Revue philosophique, December, 1890. 

2 The Pacific Educational Journal, February, 1896. 

3 Child-Study Monthly, Vol. II, pp. 152-67. 
^Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. V, pp. 497-511. 
5 Ihid., pp. 523-40. 

^Proceedings N. E. A., 1898, pp. 1011-15. 

7 Northwestern Monthly, Vol. VIII, pp. 651-54; Vol. IX, 
pp. 188-91, 338-42. 

8 Education, Vol. XVIII, pp. 235-40. 

9 Barnes' Studies in Education, Vol. I, pp. 83-93. 

10 Journal of Pedagogy, Vol. II, pp. 265-84. 
" Scrihner's Magazine, Vol. Ill, pp. 690-96. 

12 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. IV, pp. 129-75. 

13 Ihid., Vol. VI, pp. 135-51. 

14 Northwestern Monthly, Vol. IX, pp. 349-55. 



Interest as a Measure of Values 21 

more complex intellectual interests of children, has 
been studied by Lindley.^ O'Shea^ has studied 
children's interests in pictures, myths, and nature 
literature. While their interests as revealed in ideals, 
ambitions, choice of occupations, etc., have been 
studied by Barnes,^ Miss Darrah,^ Monroe, ^ and 
Jegi.^ The data derived from these and many 
similar studies yield much concurrent testimony 
regarding the nature and development of children's 
spontaneous interests. Their influence has already 
modified to a considerable extent the theory and 
practice of secular education. They prove con- 
clusively that the study of children's interests is a 
profitable method of approach to the problem of 
rational instruction. 

Interest and religious education. — In religious 
education, the doctrine of interest has not been so 
widely accepted as in secular education. It is much 
harder to get a sympathetic hearing on such a topic 
before a body of religious teachers than before a body 
of secular teachers. A few years ago, in addressing 
a Sunday-school convention, I made the statement 
that the Bible material chosen for use in the Sunday 
schools ought to be adapted to the interests and intel- 

1 American Journal of Psychology, Vol. VIII, pp. 431-93. 

2 Child-Study Monthly, Vol. II, pp. 266 fF. 

3 Northwestern Monthly, Vol. IX, pp. 91-93. 

4 Popular Science Monthly, Vol. LIII, pp. 88-98. 

5 Education, Vol. XVIII, pp. 259-64. 

6 Transactions of the Illinois Society of Child-Study, Vol. Ill, 
pp. 131-44- 



22 The Child and His Religion 

ligence of the pupils. From the point of view of 
most secular teachers, this statement was so common- 
place as to have in it an element of humor. And 
yet a man prominent in Sunday-school work chal- 
lenged it vigorously, asserting, amidst considerable 
applause, that children should be taught what they 
ought to know in the Bible, and not what they wanted 
to know. At one time, while attempting to collect 
the opinions of teachers and others as to what por- 
tions of the Bible are most attractive to children of 
different ages and types, I sent a list of questions 
to a prominent religious publication. The editor 
replied that he could not publish it, he had no sym- 
pathy with such an attempt, and did not believe in 
selecting Bible material according to the likes or 
dislikes of pupils. In the early Christian centuries, 
a stern church Father became much incensed at 
those who proposed to apply grammatical principles 
to the interpretation of the Bible, and said he would 
blush to have the Holy Scriptures subjected to the 
rules of grammar. So, apparently, would this 
editor blush to have the Holy Scriptures subjected 
to the laws of human nature. The most extensive 
organization in the world for the promotion of Bible- 
study in the Sunday school has shaped its courses 
of study from the beginning with complete disregard 
for the interests and capacities of children. Only 
within the past year has it yielded to the more pro- 
gressive element in religious education, which has 
now become strong enough to control the situation. 



Interest as a Measure of Values 23 

The tardiness of religious educators in accepting 
a principle that secular education has incorporated 
into its pedagogical creed, is not hard to understand. 
We have found that throughout those centuries when 
all education was under ecclesiastical control, 
theology taught that the natural man was vile and 
the natural interests of the human heart were not 
to be trusted. The aim then was to repress and 
eradicate these natural interests and to create a 
man that should be conformed to religious, and not to 
natural, standards. When secular education sepa- 
rated itself from religious institutions, it was more 
open to the influence of the changing views of human 
nature. Science became its handmaid, moreover, 
and has increasingly shaped its aims and given direc- 
tion to its activities. But any suggestion that the 
natural processes of life, of whatsoever kind, are not 
to be trusted and utilized in education is repugnant 
to science. Hence secular education, under the 
influence of science, becomes more and more com- 
mitted to natural aims and methods. Meanwhile, 
religious education, sharing the age-long suspicions 
of the church that naturalistic interpretations of 
human life are wrong, and that science cannot 
legitimately shape its ideals and methods, whatever 
it may do with secular education, does not follow the 
latter in its development, except in the most reluctant 
and half-hearted manner. 

But there are signs of a new era in religious educa- 
tion, as there are signs of a new era in religious life 



24 The Child and His Religion 

as a whole. Tendencies that have been operating 
within the church from the beginning are culminat- 
ing in a different view of the natural world. Men 
are ceasing to believe in that sharp distinction be- 
tween the natural and the supernatural in which 
their fathers believed. They are coming to believe, 
and believe fervently, that nature is the theater of 
God's activity no less than what has been thought to 
be outside of nature, and therefore cannot be evil. 
They are coming to believe that earth and earth's 
children are not in conflict with heaven and the chil- 
dren of heaven. They are coming to believe that 
the natural man is not, as Jonathan Edwards thought, 
suspended over hell by an angry God, but rather a 
creature of God's love and care — not an utterly bad 
man at all, but a man trying to live his life out up to 
the full level of his abihty and opportunities. And 
with these changed, and changing, convictions re- 
garding nature and man, the church at its best is now 
ready to recognize natural processes in religious 
education, and in the regeneration of society, and to 
welcome the aid of science in doing the work it is 
appointed to do.^ 

i For more extended discussions regarding the doctrine of in- 
terest in education, see James, Talks to Teachers on Psychology, 
chap, x; De Garmo, Interest in Education; O'Shea, Education as 
Adjustment, pp. 146 ff.; McMurry, Elements of General Method, 
chap, iii; Dewey, Interest in Relation to Will (Herbart Yearbook, 
1895); and Ostermann, Interest in Its Relation to Pedagogy. 



CHAPTER II 
THE NATURAL RELIGION OF CHILDREN 

The view that a child is naturally religious is a 
part of the same general philosophy of life that under- 
lies the doctrine of interest in education. According 
to this philosophy, nature is the progressive unfold- 
ment not only of material structures but also of 
human values. It is a mode of spiritual activity. 
Human life is a part of the cosmic order, and is sub- 
ject to the same laws that control the movements of 
electrons within an atom or the revolutions of the solar 
system. All that can ever be in man's world is 
implicit in nature. This is no more than to assert 
in psychological terms the law of the conservation 
of energy. Hence those who accept this philosophy, 
have never found it hard to believe that the natural 
interests of children are intrinsically healthy, and 
imder normal conditions, are safe guides in their 
training and care. Hence, too, those who accept 
this philosophy have always sought in the child the 
germs of religion, as of everything else that enters into 
the life of the adult man or woman. 

Natural religion and the doctrine of interest in 
educational history. — ^Accordingly, the doctrine of 
interest and the belief in natural religion have had 
a similar history. The latter has received more at- 
tention from theology, and the former from educa- 

25 



26 The Child and His Religion 

tion. But of every generation of theologians and 
educators it may be said that the two beliefs have 
been closely associated both in the minds of indi- 
viduals and in systems of thought. It is not surpris- 
ing, therefore, though none the less significant, that 
the history of educational reform should support not 
only the doctrine of^ interest, as we have found in the 
previous chapter, but also the belief in the child's 
natural religion. Thus Sir Francis Bacon, whose 
philosophical writings have had a large influence in 
the development of inductive reasoning and in the 
whole movement of modern science, identified reli- 
gious processes with those of nature. He believed 
that the rational powers of man's soul are divine and 
that man realizes himself religiously, as otherwise, 
through natural means. A more comprehensive 
statement of this view of human life has perhaps 
never been made than is contained in Bacon's first 
aphorism: 

Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, does and 
understands as much as his observations on the order of 
nature, either with regard to things or the mind, permit him, 
and neither knows nor is capable of more.^ 

Comenius also, whom some believe to have been 
the greatest educator of the Christian centuries, 
identified religion with the natural qualities of the 
child's life. A fundamental principle in his educa- 
tional philosophy was that the seeds of learning, 
virtue, and piety are naturally implanted in the 
human soul. Of piety he says: 

I Novum Organum, Book I, "Aphorism" I. 



Natural Religion of Children 27 

That the roots of piety are present in man is shown by 
the fact that he is in the image of God. For an image impHes 
Hkeness, and that like rejoices in Hke, is an immutable law of 
nature. Since, then, man's only equal is He in whose image 
he has been made, it follows that there is no direction in which 
he can be more easily carried by his desires than towards the 
fountain whence he took his origin. ^ 

And again, in answer to those who opposed his views 
with the doctrine of innate depravity: 

It is base, wicked, and an evident sign of ingratitude, that 

we continually complain of our corrupt state If we 

deny that we, with our offspring, are unfit for the kingdom of 
God, how was it that Christ said of children that theirs was the 
kingdom of heaven ? Or how can he refer us to them, bidding 
us to become as little children, if we wish to enter into the 
kingdom of heaven? .... We see then that it is more 
natural and easier for a man to become wise, honest and 
righteous than for his progress to be hindered by incidental 
depravity. For everything returns easily to its own nature. 

Pestalozzi, the great Swiss educator, whose influ- 
ence in giving a social impulse to education has hardly 
been equaled, likewise makes religion a primary con- 
stituent of the child's nature. He not only be- 
lieved in the child's intuitive perception of religious 
things but he would have this quality of his mind 
cultivated along with other qualities throughout the 
entire educational process. He says to the mother: 

God has given to thy child all the faculties of our nature, 
but the grand point remains undecided — how shall this heart, 
this head, these hands, be employed ? To whose service shall 
they be dedicated ? A question the answer to which involves 
a futurity of happiness or misery to a hfe so dear to thee 

I The Great Didactic, chap, v, sec. i8. 



28 The Child and His Religion 

It is recorded that God opened the heavens to the patriarch 
of old, and showed him a ladder leading thither. This ladder 
is let down to every descendant of Adam; it is offered to thy 
child. But he must be taught to climb it. And let him not 
attempt it by the cold calculations of the head, or the mere 
impulse of the heart; but let all these powers combine, and 
the noble enterprise will be crowned with success. These 
powers are already bestowed on him, but to thee it is given to 
assist in calling them forth. ^ 

Pestalozzi's belief in the innate religious qualities of 
the child, and his conviction that the development of 
these should be an integral part of all education, may 
be summed up in the following quotations cited by 
Quick: 

The child loves and beheves before it thinks and acts. 

These forces of the heart, — faith and love, — are in the 
formation of immortal man what the root is for the tree. 

Man does not live by bread alone; _every child needs a 
rehgious development; every child needs to know how to 
pray to God in all simpHcity, but with faith and love. 

If the rehgious element does not run through the whole of 
education, this element will have little influence on the life; 
it remains formal or isolated. 

The child accustomed from his earhest years to pray, to 
think, and to work, is already more than half educated.^ 

But it is to Froebel that we must look for the most 
complete expression of the belief that the child's 
nature is essentially religious. Indeed, Froebel's 
entire philosophy turns upon this point. The whole 
visible universe is divinely constituted. It is the 
external expression of an internal energy, which is 

1 Letters to Greaves, p. 21. 

2 Educational Reformers, p. 358. 



Natural Religwn of Children 29 

God. Man is one with God, and is a part of the 
universal process of self-realization. 

It is the special destiny and life-work of man, as an intelli- 
gent and rational being, to become fully, vividly, and clearly 
conscious of his essence, of the divine effluence in him, and, 
therefore, of God; to become fully, vividly, and clearly con- 
scious of his destiny and life-work; and to accomplish this, 
to render it (his essence) active, to reveal it in his own life 
with self-determination and freedom. 

Since the goal of man's life is to render the divine 
content of the universe and his own life conscious to 
himself, and make himself an efficient coworker with 
God in the universal process, the function of all 
education is to help man to this goal. 

By education [says Froebel], the divine essence of man 
should be unfolded, brought out, Hfted into consciousness, and 
man himself raised into free, conscious obedience to the 
divine principle that lives in him, and to a free representation 
of this principle in his life. Education, in instruction, should 
lead man to see and know the divine, spiritual, and eternal 
principle which animates surrounding nature, constitutes the 
essence of nature, and is permanently manifested in nature; 
and, in Hving reciprocity and united with training, it should 
express and demonstrate the fact that the same law rules both 
(the divine principle and nature), as it does nature and man. 
Education as a whole, by means of instruction, should bring 
to man's consciousness, and render efficient in his Ufe, the 
fact that man and nature proceed from God and are con- 
ditioned by him — that both have their being in God. 

Thus, with much repetition, Froebel, throughout 
his book, The Education of Man, affirms the reli- 
gious constitution of all nature, the child's included, 

I The Education of Man, p. 2. 



30 The Child and His Religion 

and the necessity of basing education upon this 
affirmation. It is this fact that makes the kinder- 
garten virtually a religious institution, the one really 
religious institution in our educational system. For 
the average kindergartner, Froebel is not merely 
the founder of a new type of infant training. He is 
the prophet of a new religion that unifies nature and 
the human spirit. The Education oj Man is the 
kindergartner's Bible, and there can be no question 
but that it is thus far the most complete expression of 
an educational creed that is religious, and yet has in 
itself the germs of scientific culture. If ever religious 
education and secular education are brought into 
harmony, it will be upon some such basis as Froebel's 
educational philosophy. 

Science and natural religion. — The attitude of the 
educational reformers toward natural religion has 
been vindicated by modern science, just as we have 
found to be the case with the doctrine of interest. 
Science, whose field of work is nature, and whose 
method is an objective study of the phenomena of 
nature, is bound not alone by its premises but by the 
very laws of mind, to discover God in nature, as well 
as man's approach to God through natural methods. 
It is a fundamental instinct of the human soul to seek 
unity of knowledge and belief, as it is to seek unity 
of life. Hence, from the beginning of its history, 
science has been implicitly religious. In putting its 
insistent questions to nature, it has been engaged 
in a quest for God, and the ways of life that will bring 



Natural Religion of Children 31 

man into harmony with his Creator. Just as soon as 
these questions are put to human nature, it is found 
that the mind of man brings to light, in its instincts, 
and fundamental processes of reasoning, what is 
everywhere suggested in nature. There is a God — 
intelligent, purposeful, benevolent — who is working 
in and through nature, and most immediately and 
personally in the life of man. That is to say, the 
divine content of nature comes to consciousness in 
its highest creature, man. Man is religious because 
the so-called natural world of which he is a part is a 
supernatural world, progressively incarnating the 
life of Him who is Creator alike of body and spirit. 
The first scientists to discover that man is naturally 
religious were the students of primitive races. Such 
were the anthropologists, the ethnologists, the stu- 
dents of comparative religion. Whether as mission- 
aries, travelers, college and university investigators, 
or experts connected with bureaus of government 
research, these men collected masses of facts bearing 
upon the religious lives of the lower races, and, in- 
deed, of all non-Christian peoples. These facts 
were sifted out and interpreted, and the common 
elements in the religions of many diverse tribes and 
nations were brought to view. Thus, facts, principles, 
and laws were derived which constitute the subject- 
matter of a new science, that of comparative religion; 
and comparative religion affirms that mankind 
everywhere has certain instincts, beliefs, customs, 
and institutions that are religious, and that are 



32 The Child and His Religion 

essentially identical wherever found. Such is the 
instinct to endow all visible phenomena with spirit, 
which has been called animism, and which men like 
Professor Tylor' believe is the tap-root of all religion. 
Such are the ideas of God and the survival of death, 
which, in various forms, are universal. Such are 
worship, burial, and other customs growing out of 
these beliefs, with their appropriate institutions and 
systems of social control. 

Closely related to this group of scientists are those 
students of genetic psychology who have applied the 
principles and methods of that branch of science to 
the study of children's religious natures. Follow- 
ing the clue to the essential elements of the religious 
life supplied by comparative religion, they have 
observed the questions, sayings, customs, and conduct 
of children, to find evidence that the child naturally 
shares in the religious consciousness of the race. 
The results have been no less conclusive than in the 
case of comparative religion. For the purposes of 
religious education, they are even more significant 
since they put us in possession of facts and laws of 
life that illuminate the practical problems of religious 
nurture in the home, school, and church. 

Animism. — First among these results of the study 
of children's religious nature is the conclusion that 
the child, like primitive man, is animistic. He 
instinctively endows the world, both animate and 
inanimate, with spirit and personality. The rocks, 

I Primitive Culture. 



Natural Religion of Children 33 

flowers, and trees; the stars, moon, and sun; the 
clouds, wind, and rain; his own playthings, whether 
doll, sled, or marbles — are, at various times and in 
varying degrees, felt to have life, and to think, feel, 
and act like himself. Careful, systematic observa- 
tion would doubtless reveal this instinct in every 
child, although it is manifested more clearly in some 
children than in others; while, in general, the sur- 
roundings and example of adult life tend to repress 
and obscure it. 

The heavenly bodies frequently appeal to this 
instinct in children, just as they do in the case of 
primitive peoples. The moon, for most children, is 
alive. It looks down upon them frorii the sky. It 
follows them about. A little girl of five years said to 
me one night: "Why does the moon always seem 
to follow us? Does it really see us?" The stars 
are the eyes of the blue sky, peeping out from behind 
the clouds, twinkling merrily or moist with the mists 
of evening. The same little girl asked me on one 
occasion if the stars did not sometimes wink at 
children. The large number of poems and prose se- 
lections in children's literature that deal with personi- 
fications of the moon, stars, and sun, witness to this 
animistic spirit in children. Rain and snow suggest 
to the child all sorts of personal qualities. It is hard 
for them to resist the feeling that a summer shower 
comes with a sort of personal benevolence to water the 
dry flowers and grass. A little girl of four years illus- 
trated this feeling on a certain occasion. There was 



34 The Child and His Religion 

a thunder shower after a long dry spell. The rain 
was pattering on the sidewalk outside the house. 
The child stretched forth her hands toward the ra'in- 
drops and said: "Come, good rain, and water our 
plants!" Flowers and trees have individuality for 
most children, if not for all. Ruth's mamma found 
her sitting among the wild geraniums, some distance 
from the house. "What are you doing, Ruth?" 
" I'm sitting by the flowers. They are lonesome and 
like to have me with them, donH you know?^' At 
another time she said: "Mamma, these daisies seem 
to look up at me and talk to me. Perhaps they 
want us to kiss them." On one occasion she said to 
her brother, who was in the act of gathering some 
flowers she claimed for herself, "I don't think it nice 
to break off those poor flowers. They like to live 
just as well as you do." The boy thus chided by his 
sister for gathering her flowers, was generally very 
fond of plants and trees, and felt a quite himaan 
companionship in them. He could not bear to see 
flowering plants hanging in a broken condition, or 
lying crushed upon the sidewalk. Even at the age 
of ten years, he would still work solicitously over 
flowers like the violets, bluets, and crowfeet, with 
evident concern for their comfort. 

Children often personify playthings, personal 
trinkets, etc. Thus a girl mentioned by Dr. Gould 
had a habit of caressing some object in her sleeping- 
room, as a vase, ornamental box, or piece of furniture 
before retiring for the night. A boy of three years 
talked to his sled and scolded it for getting tangled 



Natural Religion of Children 35 

up. Sometimes he would whip his playthings if 
they did not work to suit him. Once, in a fit of 
anger, he broke a favorite toy, and then cried bitterly 
because he thought the toy felt hurt. The anger- 
phase of animism is often perpetuated into adult 
life, when grown-up people get mad at obstinate 
machinery, uncertain fountain pens, and exasperat- 
ing door-locks. 

This animistic spirit in children is the same that 
inspired those children of nature, the Greeks, to 
people the oak trees with dryads and the springs and 
streams with nymphs. It is the same spirit that led 
the Druids of Western Europe to worship the trees; 
the Aztecs, the sun; and the ancient Egyptians and 
Hindus, the waters of the Nile and Ganges. It is the 
same spirit that works among modern men, in more 
subtle and refined forms, now in poetry, now in 
science itself, to give a personal, spiritual, interpre- 
tation to nature. We see it in Wordsworth's poems, 
in some of Kingsley's novels, in the nature sketches 
of Charles Dudley Warner, and in the writings of 
physicists like Lord Kelvin and Sir Oliver Lodge. 
It makes little difference what this tendency of the 
human mind is called. Some would prefer to name 
it anthropomorphism; others, perhaps, fancy or 
imagination. The important thing is that such an 
instinct exists in children, as among the lower races 
of mankind, and, indeed, among the higher races — 
in the poets, certain scientists, and others — where 
the deadening effects of over-intellectualism have not 



36 The Child and His Religion 

blighted the naive feelings and instincts of the 
natural man. Such an instinct witnesses to man's 
oneness with nature — to the great fundamental fact 
of life, that the energy which throbs in the human 
intellect and emotions, works throughout nature, 
with the same spiritual purpose, and toward the 
same spiritual ends, that give meaning and value to 
man's own existence. 

The instinct of causality. — Another result of the 
study of children's religious nature is the conclusion 
that the child tries to discover a personal cause, to ex- 
plain the phenomena of the objective world and its 
own life. In the language of science, it seeks to satisfy 
its instinct of causality. In the language of religion, it 
seeks a creator. This instinct of causality, or quest 
for a creator, is psychologically related to animism. 
To endow the universe with spirit is to point the 
way toward the discovery of a personal agency back 
of phenomena, and working through them. But 
animism, properly speaking, does not rise above the 
plane of instinct and feeling. It institutes no intelli- 
gent inquiry as to the cause and meaning of things. 
The instinct of causality makes this additional de- 
mand. It is a function of the rational intellect. It 
wants to know what power, what personality, brings 
the phenomena of the universe to pass. It is rooted, 
like the other elements of the religious nature, in the 
divine constitution of man. The child, made in the 
image of his Creator, reflecting the powers of self- 
activity which his Creator possesses, sees in the uni- 



Natural Religion of Children 37 

verse a personal, intelligent agent at work. He can 
no more conceive of things happening without the 
direction of personal will, in the cosmic order, than 
he can conceive of things so happening in the human 
order. He is in the midst of man's activities and cre- 
ations, and he sees nothing made, or unmade, with- 
out the play of human will. How can he look upon 
the cosmos, of which his own little world is a part, as 
independent of those laws of cause and effect that 
condition human achievements ? 

Hence it is that with children, as with primitive 
men everywhere, we find the question of ultimate 
cause, and its answer in terms of supernatural 
agency. All men, from the lowest to the highest, 
have been seekers after gods, or God. Plutarch 
says: 

I have seen people without cities and organized govern- 
ments, or laws; but people without shrines and deities I have 
not seen. 

Ratzel says: 

We cannot analyze a single race on its spiritual side with- 
out laying bare the germs and root-fibres of rehgion. Eth- 
nography knows no race devoid of rehgion. Rehgion is 
everywhere connected with man's craving for causality, which 
will ever be looking for the cause, or causer, of everything 
that comes to pass. Thus its deepest roots come into con- 
tact with science, and are profoundly intertwined with the 
sense of nature. From scientific conviction we must unhesi- 
tatingly endorse the verdict of Von Strauss: "Complete 
absence of religion, true atheism, may be the result of an 
undermining, soul-deadening overculture; but never the 



38 The Child and His Religion 

effect of crude barbarism. This always retains the craving 
for religion, with the corresponding faculty for religion, how- 
ever faultily and confusedly this may operate."^ 

Von Hartmann says : 

The rehgious motive of man necessarily demands an object 
upon which to center its attention. This object is, to use the 
term in a wide, but, we believe, a proper sense, "God." 
Employing the term thus, it includes the most primitive notion 
of the lowest savage as well as the highest conception of the 
most cultured races. 

It is this universal demand for a final cause, a creator, 
that comes to light in the child's life; and this 
demand becomes not only a principal factor in his 
religion, but also in all the activities which have to 
do with the ultimate problems of intellect and feeling. 
A few illustrations will suffice to make clear this in- 
stinct of causality in children. I draw first of all upon 
notes taken on the religious development of a boy 
between the ages of three and six years. At the end 
of the third year, while visiting Niagara Falls with 
his parents, this boy showed his first interest in the 
cause of things. While watching the water of the 
Falls from Prospect Park, he said: "Mamma, who 
pours the water over Niagara Falls?" We may 
imagine similar questions being asked by the Ameri- 
can Indian ages previous, and answered in terms of 
"Gitchie Manitou, the Mighty." From this begin- 
ning, the boy during the next three years seemed to 
be trying to make himself clear upon the question 
of where things come from originally, and who keeps 

I History of Mankind, Vol. I, p. 40. 



Natural Religion of Children 39 

the world going. "Who makes the birds ?" "Who 
made the very first bird ?" "Who fixed their wings 
so they can fly ? " " Who takes care of the birds and 
rabbits in the winter when snow is on the ground ?" 
"Who makes the grass grow?" "Who makes the 
trees?" "Who makes them shed their leaves and 
then get them back again ?" " Who made the sand 
and rocks in Forest Park ?" "Who made the Con- 
necticut River?" "Who keeps it from running 
dry ? " " Who makes it thunder ? " " Who put the 
moon in the sky ? " " Who made the whole world ? " 
"Who made people ?" "Who made me ?" "Does 
God make everything?" "Who made God?" 
" Was God already made ? " "Is God everywhere ? " 
Such were the questions asked again and again, with 
all sorts of comments in reply to the answers that 
were given him. The question of what is the origin 
of things was seldom or never asked. It was always 
who; and when the personal cause he was seeking 
was named "God" in connection with numerous 
objects, he finally generalized by asking if God 
makes everything. 

During the years these observations were made, 
this boy had no contact whatever with ordinary re- 
ligious instruction. The development of his instinct 
of causality was left to itself, such answers being 
given to his questions, and such comments being 
made upon topics he was interested in, as his under- 
standing seemed fitted to receive. In most observa- 
tions recorded of children's reasonings about God, 



40 The Child and His Religion 

however, it is not clear how much of their thought 
is original and how much is colored by their religious 
instruction. Even where the latter is the case, how- 
ever, there is always some suggestion of the child's 
natural attitude. Professor Sully^ tells of a boy, 
four and a half years old, who was in the habit of tak- 
ing knives from his mother's kitchen and using them. 
At last the mother said: "L., you will cut your 
fingers, and if you do they won't grow again." The 
boy thought for a moment and then replied: "But 
God would make them grow. He made me, so he 
could mend my fingers, and if I were to cut the ends 
off, I should say, 'God, God, come to your work,' and 
he would say, 'All right.'" In Extracts from a 
Father^s Diary, quoted by Professor Sully in his 
Studies of Childhood, we find this note on the reason- 
ing of a five-year-old boy about God : 

One day he asked how God made us and put flesh on us, 
and made what is inside us. He then proceeded to invent a 
little theory of creation. "I suppose he made stone men and 
iron men first, and then real men," This myth might readily 
suggest that the child had been hearing about the stone and 
iron age, and about sculptors first modeUng their statues in 
other material. It seems probable, however, that it was 
invented by a purely childish thought as a way of clearing up 
the mystery of the living, thinking man.^ 

In President Hall's study^ of the "Contents of 
Children's Minds on Entering School," there are 

i Studies of Childhood, pp. 127, 128. 

2 P. 478. 

3 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. I, pp. 139-73. 



Natural Religion of Children 41 

many incidental references to this subject. Some 
children think that God takes the sun out of the 
sky at night, lights the stars with matches, makes the 
rain fall, sends the lightning, creates babies in 
heaven, takes people to himself when they die, etc., 
etc. And Professor Barnes sums up the topic in the 
following words: 

I believe a child has a native need for a theology, and that 
if he is not given one he will create it. He early comes to the 
point where he seeks ultimate origins and ends. *'I do not 
know if Mother Nature made me," said the little blind Helen 
Kellar, '*I think my mother got me from heaven, but I do not 
know where that place is. I know that daisies and pansies 
come from seeds which have been put in the ground; but 
children do not grow out of the ground, I am sure. I have 
never seen a plant child ! But I cannot tell who made Mother 
Nature, can you?" The following are among the questions 
asked by one of my little friends when she was between four 
and five years old: "How did the moon come in the sky?" 
"Why do we die?" "Why are things made to be killed?" 
"Who made the first fish egg, and how was it made ?" "Where 
did I come from ?" "Who was the mother of the first baby 
there ever was?" "When the first mother was a baby, who 
was her mother?" "How did the first lady in the world 
learn manners?" These are but typical of the questions 
asked by any child, and a theology serves to merge them all 
in the larger theological and philosophical problems of 
adult life. The deeper demand which drove the little George 
Sand to develop an elaborate theology and ritual, and 
which drove Goethe, at seven, to erect an altar and enact 
the part of a high priest, must surely come to imaginative 
children who find themselves so constantly hemmed in by 
the phenomenal.^ 

I Studies in Education, Vol. II, p. 287, 



42 The Child and His Religion 

The instinct of immortality. — A third conclusion 
drawn by genetic psychology from its study of chil- 
dren's religious nature, is that the child believes in 
the continuity of personal existence. Adult religion 
does not have to teach it the immortality of the soul, 
any more than it has to teach it the idea of a God. 
It is naturally endowed with a sense of its immor- 
tality. Professor Sully says: 

A child cannot accept an absolute beginning of things, and 
.... he is equally incapable of believing in an absolute 
ending. He knows that we begin our earthly lives as babies. 
Well, the babies must come from something, and when we 
die we must pass into something.^ 

In Extracts from a Father's Diary, quoted by 
Professor Sully, and already referred to, we find 
this dialogue between a boy five years old and his 
mother : 

C. "Why must people die, mamma?" 

M. "They get worn out, and so can't live always. Just 
as the plants fade and die." 

C. "Well, but why can't they come to life again just like 
the flowers?" 

M. "The same flowers don't come to life again, dear." 

C. "Well, the little seed out of the flower drops into the 
earth and springs up again into a flower. Why can't people 
do like that?" 

M. ' ' Most people get very tired and want to sleep forever. ' ' 

C. "Oh! I shan't want to sleep forever, and when I am 
buried I shall try to wake up again; and there won't be any 
earth on my eyes, will there, mamma?" 

In my ownjiotes on the religious development of a 

I Studies of Childhood, pp. io6, 107. 



Natural Religion of Children 43 

boy, referred to under the previous topic, I find this 
record : 

The first illustration of his attitude toward death was at 
the beginning of his fourth year, when he found a dead bird. 
"Mamma, what is the matter with the bird ?" ''It is dead." 
"What does 'dead' mean?" "The htde bird's hfe has gone 
out of its body." "Where has the bird gone .?" It was clear 
that he had no idea in his mind to which he could refer this 
new thing his mother was trpng to explain, and nothing she 
said satisfied his questioning. A few hours later, he opened 
up the subject again by sajang, "Will the dead come off the 
little bird, mamma ?" He had noticed the ruffled condition of 
the bird's plumage and was evidently wondering if it would 
change back to its natural appearance. His mother told him 
she thought the dead would come ofiF by and by. Then he 
asked, "Mamma, when you die Hke the bird, will the dead 
come off you?" 

A few months after this, the boy had his first 
experience with the death of a human being. An 
old lady. Grandma W., whom he knew well, had 
died. The same class of questions he had previously 
asked about the dead bird he now asked about 
Grandma W. " Where has she gone ? " "To God's 
home." "Where is God's home?" "O, God's 
home is everywhere — up among the stars, here on 
earth, all about us. It is an invisible home, to us. 
We can't see it." "How did Grandma W. get to 
God's home? Did he come and get her?" "No, 
he did not come. He was right by her when she 
died. She closed her tired, sick eyes, and when she 
opened them again, she saw God, who was with her 
all the time." "What is in that box they are carry- 



44 The Child and His Religion 

ing from the house?" "Grandma W.'s body." 
"Where are they taking her?" "To Oak Grove 
Cemetery." "But, Mamma, why are they taking 
her there? What will they do with her?" "It is 
Grandma W.'s body they are taking to the cemetery. 
They will bury it." "But, Mamma, is God in the 
ground ? Grandma W. can't live in the ground, can 
she?" 

In these instances it is clear that the child could 
not grasp the idea that either the bird or Grandma 
W. had ceased to exist. Death might take the animal 
or person away, but they still lived for the child in a 
sense hardly less real than when they were before his 
eyes. One is reminded of Wordsworth's poem 
about the little cottage girl, who, with several of her 
brothers and sisters dead, still insisted that there was 
an unbroken family of seven. 

Professor Street, in his Genetic Study of Immor- 
tality,'^ says of the group of twenty -five children he 
personally studied: "It is very interesting and sug- 
gestive to note that they had no suspicion that their 
own existence would ever cease." "It seems, then," 
he adds, " that man has to learn his mortality rather 
than his immortality." The conclusions of this 
author, based upon the testimony of deaf-mutes, the 
little children personally studied, and the self-analysis 
of a considerable number of adults are as follows: 

(i) The concept of immortality has a growth that parallels 
that of the race; (2) Its origin is the product of the psychical 
i Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. VI, pp. 267-313. 



Natural Religion of Children 45 

activities of man himself, and not the fruit of a body of innate 
ideas. This does not imply, however, that there is not some 
deep, fundamental instinct, which may have been the dynamic 
power impelling him to such a conclusion;'^ (3) In the returns 
[to questions asked adults] much mention is made of the testi- 
mony of an inner revelation giving clear evidence of the truth 
of personal continuity. It is possible to explain this psycho- 
logically as the accumulated heredity of countless ages, 
joined with the autogenetic longing for perpetuit}^ However, 
until it can be shown that there is no teleology in the world, 
and that there is no divine hand at the helm, such testimony 
must be accepted, though it cannot be empirically estabhshed. 

The inability of the child to conceive of its own 
or other lives as ceasing to exist, may, of course, have 
various interpretations. It seems to me, however, 
that it is open to the same interpretation that has 
already been placed upon the animistic impulse and 
the sense of causality. It is an innate endowment, 
an instinct of immortality. All races of mankind 
have believed in some kind of survival of death. 
This belief, according to some students of the prob- 
lem, has had a most important influence in the evolu- 
tion of civilization. To say nothing of its effects 
upon the lives of men, morally considered, the cus- 
toms and laws associated with such a belief must have 
had a vastly conserving effect upon human society. 
It is not too much to say that one important measure 
of a people's racial fitness has been their belief in the 
survival of death. The significance of this racial 
phase of the problem has not yet been fully appre- 
ciated in the arguments for and against the belief in 

I Italics mine. 



46 The Child and His Religion 

the immortality of the soul. But, in addition, to 
the racial belief in the survival of death as accounting 
for the child's sense of immortality, there is the 
general philosophical consideration already pre- 
sented. The child is a part of a world-process which 
progressively unfolds the divine consciousness. God 
is immanent in the human soul, and God is eternal. 
The child instinctively feels the values of a life that 
shares the nature of its creator. Science predicates 
an instinct of self-preservation as fundamental to the 
struggle for existence. But the instinct of self-pres- 
ervation, translated into its religious equivalent, 
becomes an instinct of immortality, because the 
struggle for existence is an eternal process. 

Whatever interpretation may be placed upon the 
child's attitude toward death, however, the fact itself 
is significant. It is an enormously economical factor 
in the child's life, just as it has been in the life of the 
race, and must have a similar value in fitting the 
child to survive in its individual struggle for existence. 
Its importance for religious education has not been 
fully appreciated, if, indeed, in some quarters, it has 
been recognized at all. 

Faith and good-will. — Such are the principal 
elements of natural religion that have thus far 
received the attention of scientific students. They 
are fundamental factors, it seems to me, in all 
religion, however highly developed may be the type. 
If a mind feels instinctively the spiritual quality of 
things and forces, if it puts a personal, intelligent 



Natural Religion of Children 47 

cause back of the phenomena of the world, and if it 
beheves instinctively in its personal survival of 
death, that mind is essentially religious, and, under 
proper conditions, will direct its feeling, thinking, 
and conduct according to the religious standards of 
life. There are other qualities of the child's nature, 
however, more general in character, which have very 
important relations to religion, and which are dis- 
tinguishing characteristics of childhood. Such are 
especially the qualities of faith and good-will, with- 
out which religion, in the Christian sense of the term, 
is unthinkable. It remains briefly to consider these 
qualities. 

That the child's natural attitude toward the world 
is one of faith and good-will is evident to the most 
casual observer. If one considers this attitude in a 
spirit of scientific inquiry, the feeling provoked will 
not simply be one of affectionate regard for the 
naivete of childhood, but of wonder and intellectual 
interest. Why is it, that — in a human society where 
faith is so uncertain, and distrust so common; where 
good-will depends so much upon selfish considera- 
tions, and jealousy, suspicion, and hatred are so apt 
to supplant sympathy, friendship, and benevolence — 
the unspoiled human nature of childhood is so full 
of faith, so trustful, so prevailingly good-wiUed ? 
Here is a problem that the philosophy of innate 
depravity seems to have overlooked. And the 
child has faith and good-will. The great religious 
verities, which we have already found he believes 



48 The Child and His Religion 

in instinctively, are felt in such an intimate way that 
he reacts to them in the spirit of faith and love. That 
is to say, they are not mere fanciful ideas, or intellec- 
tual conceptions, but motive forces modifying his 
states of mind and determining his conduct. In 
connection with a child's belief that the animate and 
inanimate worlds are endowed with spirit and 
personality, note his sense of companionship with 
growing plants, trees, and other objects in nature. 
As one observes his attitude toward these things, he 
cannot fail to see their influence upon him, an 
influence that is not simply intellectual or aesthetic, 
but also moral. He likes them almost, or quite, as 
he does persons, and his treatment of them is not the 
treatment of dead, senseless things, but of living, 
feeling, reasoning things. The plants that he culti- 
vates in his garden, the flowers that he watches in 
the fields, the trees among whose branches he climbs, 
the birds that he spies out in the thickets — are all 
his friends, each speaking to him in its own way. 
The effect upon his life of such a feeling toward 
natural objects is beyond estimate. He loves to be 
among these things. His soul is kept in a healthy 
condition by contact with them. He learns from 
them their wonderful secrets. He receives from 
them suggestions that affect advantageously his con- 
duct. In short, his instinctive belief in the spiritual 
relationship between himself and these natural 
objects begets a faith that saves him oftentimes from 
evil associations, from ignorance, and from idleness. 



Natural Religion of Children 49 

A child's faith and good-will are manifested also 
in connection with his idea of a personal, intelligent 
power in the world. In the latter part of his fourth 
year, a little boy was awakened one night by a 
violent thunderstorm. He was much frightened, and 
called to his mother with trembling voice, " Mamma, 
God won't let the thunder hurt us, will he ? " When 
assured that the lightning was governed by God's 
laws, and that there was little or no danger, he 
quieted down and slept soundly during the rest of the 
storm* So far as was known, this child had never 
been told that God protected him under such condi- 
tions. It was evidently an inference drawn from his 
own thoughts about the personal influence he felt 
to pervade the world. Similar evidence of this 
child's belief in God's care for him and other people, 
as well as animals, and things generally, was plenti- 
ful. Thus from time to time he asked a number of 
questions as to whether God liked him, how he took 
care of his little sister before she came into the world, 
how he got little children to heaven when they died, 
whether God fed the squirrels in the winter when the 
nuts were gone, how God makes children good, how 
he makes little babies, kittens, etc., grow up and 
become big, etc. In all such questions there was 
implied the most perfect faith that God is in the 
world, keeping it in order, and caring for his creatures 
in a tender and benevolent way. That such faith 
gave him a feeling of security and courage in storms, 
darkness, sickness, and dangers of various kinds, is 



50 The Child and His Religion 

certain. In other words, there was present a faith 
that saves from iear, discouragement, and weakness, 
and there was a hearty response of good-will toward 
a being thus able and willing to order his world 
benevolently, as well as toward a world so ordered. 
But the child's faith and good-will go out to human 
beings in a larger measure than to nature, or even 
to God himself. His mind has not learned to sum 
up the finite in the infinite, to rest his faith in things 
near at hand upon the ultimate cause of things. 
And so his faith and good- will find their major 
stimulus in parents, brothers and sisters, playmates 
and friends. And how great and beautiful is this 
faith and this good-will? I have never seen in a 
young unspoiled child any indications of a disposition 
to doubt the good intentions and honesty of people, 
to mistrust or suspect them, or to ascribe evil motives 
to their conduct. That common tendency of the 
adult mind to think evil of other people, to see sinister 
motives in their actions, is absent in the child. Even 
when he is punished, or mistreated, he does not 
ascribe the act to bad intentions, and he harbors no 
resentment. Did any parent of a young child, or 
teacher in the lower grades of the public school, ever 
see any inclination of the child toward ill-will 
because of punishment ? Do not all angry thoughts 
go with the pain and the tears, if such have arisen at 
all ? Who is it that first wants to "m^ake up" when 
these little tragedies of human affection are enacted 
between little children and their parents or teachers ? 



Natural Religion of Children 51 

The fact is, the world is an innocent, good sort of 
world to the child. It reflects his own simple, trans- 
parent life. He believes in it and likes it. He does 
not suspect it of wanting to harm him. He is the 
enemy of no one, and does not imagine that he has 
any enemies in turn. True he may find fault with 
people. He may get mad at his parents or playmates, 
and say or do things that are unkind. He is not an 
angel, and he often does very unangelic things. But 
there is absolutely no bitterness, no hatred, no grudge, 
no harboring of ill-will, no thinking the worst. His 
faith in the essential honesty, innocence, and good 
intentions of human nature is, as yet, absolute. His 
good-will toward everything and everybody in the 
world about him is abounding. 

The significance of these qualities for religion, and 
life, cannot be overestimated. We have already seen 
how Pestalozzi thought that "faith and love are in 
the formation of immortal man what the root is for 
the tree." The Apostle Paul's majestic summary of 
human virtues under the rubrics of faith, hope, and 
love was not only a religious but a scientific state- 
ment of fact. The essence of social philosophy is 
contained in the words of the Angel of the Annuncia- 
tion, "On earth peace, good will toward men!" 
And Jesus of Nazareth himself singled out these 
qualities, and symbolized them in the child, when he 
said: "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to 
come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 



CHAPTER III 
CHILDREN'S INTEREST IN THE BIBLE 

In the preceding chapters, I have aimed to suggest 
a certain background philosophy of human life, 
which, I believe, should be the starting-point in 
religious education; together with the elements of the 
religious nature with which such education primarily 
has to do. I shall next try to apply the facts and 
principles thus suggested to a study of the subject- 
matter of religious education, as drawn from the 
Bible. 

The Bible and religious education. — It is, of course, 
a theoretical, as well as a practical, demand of the 
Christian religion, that the Bible shall be a princi- 
pal source of religious culture-material. The reason- 
ableness of this demand is not apt to be questioned 
by anyone who thinks seriously upon the subject. 
Whatever may be thought of Christianity as a type 
of religion, there can be no question that the civiliza- 
tion we live in is intimately identified with it. Nor 
can there be any question that Christianity, in its 
origin, nature, and historical development, has 
depended upon the Bible. So that neither Chris- 
tianity nor Christian civilization can be accounted 
for without a knowledge of the spirit and content of 
this book. The children of any given generation of 
Christians can come to^ their Jull heritage, not merely 

53 



54 The Child and His Religion 

of religious beliefs, but also of literary, ethical, social, 
and political ideals and usages that have grown up 
along with Christianity, only by being made thor- 
oughly familiar with the Bible. This establishes 
the claim of the Bible to a generous recognition as a 
great primary source of ideals, facts, and principles 
necessary to a proper understanding and appropria- 
tion of the content of Christian civilization. Such 
recognition is quite independent of religious con- 
siderations, in the ordinary sense of that term. It 
must proceed from any large view of the many phases 
of human culture which western nations have made 
distinctive. 

But it is also a theoretical and practical demand 
of the Christian religion that this Bible, fundamental 
as is its importance for religious education, shall be 
used intelligently. It is not a book so completely 
transcending human experience that, as the medi- 
aeval bishop thought, it is independent of the rules of 
grammar, or, as the modern religious editor thought, 
independent of the laws of mind. Whatever theo- 
logical construction may be placed upon the Bible, 
or whatever its importance for the education of man- 
kind, it must be brought into relationship with the 
human spirit through the same channels of sense, 
intellectual perceptions, reasoning processes, and 
emotional response that are employed in connection 
with other types of educational material. The 
mediaeval saint might clasp his Bible to his breast 
to ward off the assaults of Satan. The East Indian 



Children's Interest in the Bible 55 

mother may still lay her Bible in the cradle of her 
babe to keep away disease. The fortune-telling type 
of believer within our own communities may open 
his Bible at random to find some verse that will 
decide the fortunes of a day or lifetime. The simple- 
minded gospel worker may use Bible texts in revival 
meetings or display them in railroad depots or trolley 
cars as talismans of salvation. But the average 
modern mind will no longer accept the Bible as a 
fetich or talisman, because it can no longer believe 
in fetiches or talismans of any kind. It has not 
become less religious or reverent, but more intelligent 
and discriminating. 

It becomes necessary, therefore, in religious educa- 
tion to use the Bible like any other body of literature 
that must depend, for its understanding and influ- 
ence, upon intelligent comprehension and responsive- 
ness of feeling. This means that the Bible must be 
adapted to the pupil and not the pupil to the Bible — 
that its material must be selected and imparted 
according to the mental capacity, the emotional atti- 
tude, the instinctively or rationally felt needs of the 
learner. One important criterion by which this 
adaptation may be effected is the spontaneous 
interest of children in the material of the Bible, and 
this criterion I have employed in obtaining the results 
presented in this chapter. Starting from the con- 
clusion of current scientific inquiry as to the meaning 
of children's interests, and following the same general 
lines that have been followed in the study of chil- 



56 The Child and His Religion 

dren's interests in the various types of educational 
material used in the public schools, I have attempted 
to investigate the interest of children in the Bible. 
The questions I have kept before me are the follow- 
ing: 

1. How do children feel toward the Old and the 
New Testament, respectively, at different ages ? 

2. How do they feel toward the various books of 
the Bible at different ages ? 

3. How do they feel toward the different scenes, 
stories, and characters of the Bible at different ages ? 

4. What is the development of interest in the 
scenic, narrative, and personal elements of the 
Bible as age advances ? 

5. What is the development of interest in the per- 
son and works of Jesus as age advances ? 

A syllabus of questions was prepared in such a 
way as to bring out, directly or indirectly, the in- 
formation sought under each of these heads. This 
syllabus was put in the hands of a large number of 
parents and teachers, with the instruction that they 
should extend their observations over as long a 
period as possible, and should use such special tests 
as they could in getting at the preferences of children. 
From the children thus studied by others, and those 
studied by myself, 1,000 were selected as the basis 
of this paper. Most of these children live in the 
larger cities and towns of New England. They 
are mainly of American parentage, though there are 
included a few Italians and French Canadians. 



Children's Interest in the Bible 57 

They are distributed among all the evangelical 
denominations, the Congregationalists predominat- 
ing. There are, besides, a few Catholics. The 
children range in age from eight to twenty, and are 
about equally distributed as to age and sex. While 
the study itself is a tentative one, and no claim what- 
ever is made that its results are conclusive, it is 
nevertheless believed that the children studied are 
typical, and that the data afford a reasonably 
accurate illustration of children's Bible interests 
within the ages and classes represented. 

Choice between the Old and the New Testament, — 
I have based my estimate of children's choice between 
the main divisions of the Bible upon three classes of 
facts: (i) Their own direct statements as to their 
preference; (2) indirect evidence secured through 
their choice of Bible scenes, stories, and characters; 
and (3) the judgment of teachers. At first thought, a 
child's statement that he likes one part of the Bible 
better than another may seem to have little value. 
And yet, when we look at the matter from the stand- 
point of every-day experience, is there not every rea- 
son for thinking that the average child, in the Chris- 
tian home or Sunday school, knows what he likes, 
or does not like, in the Bible as in other things ? 
When the schoolboy says he likes United States 
history better than arithmetic, or vice versa, there is 
no reason for doubting the genuineness of his pref- 
erence. When the boy says he likes to read the life 
of Daniel Boone, or the story of Robinson Crusoe, 



58 The Child and His Religion 

better than a treatise on physics, we do not hesitate 
to accept his statement as significant. We adults 
often forget that children's hkes and dislikes are more 
spontaneous than our own, and that they are apt to 
be much less disguised. There has nothing im- 
pressed me more in looking over the returns received 
from children than the perfect candor of their 
answers. This was not always the case in the re- 
turns received from adults. The latter often hesi- 
tated to express a preference, giving reasons that 
indicated clearly a feeling that it was not just the 
proper thing to like one part of the Bible better than 
another. Every part of the Bible is holy; therefore, 
the properly constituted man or woman should like 
one as well as another. The typical child is not 
troubled with any such feeling toward the Bible. 
If he doesn't like some portion of it, he says so; or 
if he doesn't like any of it, he says so. This may be 
additional evidence of his innate depravity. I 
merely state the fact. A child's statement that he 
likes the Old Testament better than the New, or 
vice versa, seems to me therefore to be worthy of 
acceptance as an index of his interest. When such 
a statement is, in general, confirmed by the indirect 
evidence of other preferences and by the testimony 
of teachers, one's conclusions ought to rest upon a 
fairly substantial basis. 

At eight years old, the majority of children of both 
sexes prefer the New Testament; that is to say, 60 
per cent, of the boys and 72 per cent, of the girls. The 



Children's Interest in the Bible 59 

interest in the New Testament declines, however, 
during the next few years, reaching its minimum at 

14, in the case of boys, and at 12, in the case of the 
girls. At this point, 32 per cent, of the boys and 40 
per cent, of the girls prefer the New Testament. At 

15, the interest of the boys remains about the same 
as at 14, but thereafter it rises rapidly and steadily 
until at 20 years S8 per cent, prefer the New Testa- 
ment. The girls' interest rises slowly from 12 to 
14, and thereafter rises even more rapidly than the 
boys', until at 20 years 97 per cent, prefer the New 
Testament. At 8 years, 40 per cent, of the boys and 
28 per cent, of the girls prefer the Old Testament. 
From 8 years on, the interest in the Old Testament 
steadily rises, reaching its maximum at 13, in the case 
of the boys, and at 12 in the case of the girls. At this 
point, 6^ per cent, of the boys and 46 per cent, of the 
girls prefer the Old Testament. Thereafter, in the 
case of both sexes, the interest steadily declines, until 
at the age of 20, 12 per cent, of the boys and 3 per 
cent, of the girls express a preference for the Old Tes- 
tament. From 13 to 19 years, some of the boys say 
they have no choice, the maximum of such being 
reached at 15 and 16. In the case of the girls, 
this period of uncertainty reaches from 10 to 17, 
the maximum being reached at 11 and 12. A graphic 
presentation of these results is given in Charts 
I and II. 

What interpretation may we place upon these 
results ? To begin with, the interest of the youngest 



6o 



The Child and His Religion 



children in the New Testament is probably not a 
general interest in that division of the Bible. It 
centers rather in the Infant Jesus. A child is always 
of interest to other children, whether in life or story. 
The scenes and incidents of the Bible relating to 



CHART I 
Boys' Choice between the Old and the New Testament 



100 



90 



70 



60 



50 



40 



30 



20 



10 















































/ 


^ 






















/ 












^*.»' 


•'N, 






/ 


/" 






\ 


s/ 


'" 


^"^ 




•* 


-. 




/ 








^^-^ 


/\ 


-,^ 










y 


















"^ 


\ 




n\ 


-— ^ 


























\ 
\ 


















y 


r" 


\ 


> 




-^ 












/ 






\ 


/ 


\ 





AGE 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 
-™^«OLD TEST. NEW TEST.— — -^NO CHOICE, 

childhood are prime favorites with most of the 
younger children that have been studied. Thus, the 
birth of Jesus, the finding of Moses by Pharaoh's 
daughter, Jesus blessing little children and the flight 
into Egypt are among the most commonly mentioned. 
To this natural interest in the childhood of the Bible 



Children's Interest in the Bible 



6i 



must be added the special interest derived through 
Christian art and hterature, dealing with such events 
as the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the Flight into 
Egypt, much of which the average child has some 
acquaintance with. Besides these aids to interest, 



CHART II 
Girls' Choice between the Old and the New Testament 



100 



70 



60 



50 



40 



30 



20 



10 























y 






















/ 


/ 




1 
















y 


/ 








\ 


^ 










/ 














\ 








/ 
















^ 


V 


> 


cr 


/ 














,x' 


-'- 


/ 






\ 


























"-V 


-^^ 












/ 





— 





..^_ 






"v 

V 


\ 








/ 










\., 




'■*^ 


S 


^»,^^ 



AG£ 8 9 10 n 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 ,. 20 
I NEW TEST — OLD TEST^ NO CHOICE. 

we must also take into account the associations of 
Christmas time, which give the birth and childhood 
of Jesus a unique place in children's affections. It - 
is not surprising, therefore, that the New Testament, 
which contains the stories and scenes relating to a 
child naturally interesting, and rendered more so 



62 The Child and His Religion 

by the art, literature, and customs of Christian civili- 
zation, should be preferred by so many of the younger 
children. 

This element of attractiveness aside, however, it is 
probable that the New Testament does not naturally 
appeal so strongly to children as does the Old. So 
early as 8 years, 40 per cent, of the boys and 28 per 
cent, of the girls prefer the Old Testament, and these 
percentages steadily rise for some years, This indi- 
cates that even in the youngest children, to whom the 
Infant Jesus is especially attractive, there are other 
forces at work in determining their interest. These 
forces assert themselves more and more, and during 
the years from 9 or 10, on to 13 or 14, they shift the 
center of interest to the Old Testament. How 
strong these forces must be, is suggested by another 
important fact, that should be taken into account 
in this connection. In general, religious teachers 
lay much more stress upon the facts and teachings 
of the New Testament than upon those of the Old. 
As shown by this study, the interest of adults is over- 
whelmingly in favor of the New Testament. Esti- 
mating the child from the adult standpoint, these 
adults impose their interests upon the children they 
instruct. Very naturally, there is thus given to the 
children an interest in facts, doctrines, etc., that is 
not spontaneous, but derived from the teachers. 
This derived interest undoubtedly enters into the 
choice of children. And yet, as we have seen, the 
forces at work in these children's natures are suffi- 



Children's Interest in the Bible 63 

ciently strong to offset the bias induced by adult 
example and to turn the balance in favor of the Old 
Testament. Everything considered, it is probable 
that the typical boy or girl from g years to 14, is more 
attracted to the Old Testament than to the New. 

There is some light shed upon this matter by the 
scientific studies already referred to. If it be true 
that the various levels of instinct and intelligence in 
racial life have their outcroppings in the develop- 
ment of the individual child, and if we may regard 
the development of the Hebrew people as typical of 
the life of the race as a whole, ought we not to expect 
that the main centers of children's interest in the 
Bible will shift from the Old to the New Testament 
as manhood and womanhood approach ? To illus- 
trate: The fundamental human instincts may be 
classified as egoistic, or selfish, and altruistic, or un- 
selfish. Psychologists are agreed that racial devel- 
opment, as well as individual development, is away 
from the predominantly selfish instincts toward the 
predominantly unselfish instincts. Now the Old 
Testament Scriptures appeal more especially to the 
former class of instincts; while the New Testament 
Scriptures appeal rather to the latter. Fear, anger, 
jealousy, hatred, revenge, etc., are conspicuous 
attributes of God and men, in the Old Testament; 
while sympathy, compassion, trustfulness, and love 
are the most prominent attributes of God and men, 
in the New. In short, the Bible moves from an 
egoistic point of view regarding God and mankind, 



64 The Child and His Religion 

to an increasingly altruistic point of view. The 
parallelism between the development of the child and 
the development of the Bible is therefore clearly sug- 
gested, so far as concerns these great central instincts 
of the human soul. 

Again, psychologists are agreed that the human 
race has developed from a predominantly sensory- 
motor type toward a predominantly associative and 
rational type. Primitive man lives in his senses and 
activities. The world is essentially a sensuous world 
to him. He delights in everything that appeals 
strongly to sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. 
This explains his fondness for bright colors, massive 
sounds, pungent tastes, strong odors, and the like. 
His motor nature is also dominant in his enjoyments, 
as is shown especially in his fondness for dancing, 
wrestling, and other feats of strength and prowess. 
The individual child likewise develops from the 
sensory-motor to the rational in its nature and inter- 
ests. In vividness of sense-impressions and in con- 
stancy and variety of spontaneous movements, 
children surpass adults. Gilbert' found by testing 
school children that the great period of sense-develop- 
ment is from early childhood up to lo or 12. The 
play activities of children during the same period 
are very marked, as many investigations have shown. 
Out of this sensuous and intensely active life of chil- 
dren spring those interests that reveal themselves in 

I Studies from the Yale Psychological Laboratory, Vol. I, p. 80, 
and Vol. II, p. 90. 



Children's Interest in the Bible 65 

a fondness for spectacular scenes, feats of skill and 
daring, and the general flesh-and-blood heroism so 
attractive to boys and girls. Studies made of chil- 
dren's reading interests bring to light the fact that in 
the period just preceding adolescence there is a 
marked fondness for the heroic in literature. Thus, 
Principal Atkinson,^ of the Springfield (Mass.) 
High School, found that the books read the preceding 
summer by an entering freshman class were largely 
biographical, including a range of heroes from 
Charlemange and Cromwell to Daniel Boone and 
Buffalo Bill. In general, an ideal or heroic char- 
acter placed in a historic situation seemed to appeal 
to the largest number. 

Now the Bible illustrates a similar development 
from the sensory-motor type of life toward the asso- 
ciative and rational type of life. The Old Testa- 
ment abounds with spectacular scenes, such as the 
fight between David and Goliath, and Daniel in the 
lion's den; thrilling stories, such as those associated 
with the lives of Moses and Joseph; and heroic char- 
acters, such as Abraham and David. There is 
throughout a combination of scenic splendor, striking 
episodes, and unique personalities that impresses the 
senses most vividly and appeals to the love of dra- 
matic action. It is true, of course, that the motive 
of the Old Testament is religious. There was no 
design on the part of its writers to present a pageant 
of striking characters and incidents. But the method 

I Proceedings of the National Education Association^ 1898. 



66 The Child and His Religion 

is, nevertheless, that of the primitive mind, which 
seizes upon the sensuous and the dramatic, rather 
than the rational and reflective, elements of life and 
religion. Here again, therefore we find a parallelism 
between the development of the child and the devel- 
opment of the Bible. 

This parallelism between the unfolding of racial 
consciousness as revealed in the Bible and the unfold- 
ing of the child's consciousness, has further illustra- 
tion when we direct our attention to the older children 
included in this study. Here we find that as life 
ripens into adolescence, the centers of interest shift 
to the New Testament. From 15 years on, in the 
case of the boys, and from 14 years on, in the case of 
the girls, the preference of the latter becomes more 
and more marked. Now, all the studies of adoles- 
cence tend to show that this period marks a psychical, 
as well as a physical rebirth. The child is born out 
of an individualistic type of feeling into a social type 
of feeling ; out of a sensory-motor type of intelligence 
into a reflective type of intelligence ; out of an egocen- 
tric and sensuous life, in short, into a life altrocentric 
and rational. Hancock^ has found by experi- 
mental tests that children's ability to reason increases 
rapidly with the approach of adolescence. Lan- 
caster^ shows that during this period altruistic feeling 
is extremely active in both sexes, revealing itself in 
philanthropic work of all kinds. Starbucks and 

1 Educational Review, October, 1896. 

2 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. V, pp. 61-128. 

3 American Journal of Psychology, January and October, 1897. 



Children's Interest in the Bible 67 

Gulick, ^ by statistical studies of conversion, find that 
the great majority of accessions to the church take 
place between 12 and 20 years of age. We may 
conclude, therefore, that just as Jesus and the Chris- 
tian type of consciousness represented a new birth 
for the race, so does the flowering-out of the altruistic 
and reflectively religious consciousness of adolescence 
represent a new birth for the individual. In other 
words, just as the personality of Jesus and his regimen 
of life sum up the ideals toward which the race is 
struggling, so do they sum up the ideals toward which 
the individual soul is struggling. 

As regards the children who express no prefer- 
ence between the Old and the New Testament, it 
will be observed that they fall within those ages 
when the interests of the majority of the children are 
shifting from the Old to the New Testament. From 
what has already been said, it is evident that the 
transformation from the egoistic, sensuous life of 
childhood, to the altruistic reflective life of adoles- 
cence, must occasion a severe conflict of interests. 
This general conflict of interests is doubtless reflected 
in the inability, or disinclination, of some to choose 
between the Old and the New Testament. Teachers 
and parents often remark upon the indifference of 
some children during these beginning years of adoles- 
cence. As is well known in Sunday-school work, this 
is a period when children are kept in their classes 
with difficulty. The study of children reveals the 

I Association Outlook, Springfield, Mass., Vol. VIII, pp. 33-48. 



68 The Child and His Religion 

fact that early adolescence is the birthtime of doubts 
and vacillations in conduct. Now probably these 
phenomena are due in part to the physical and 
psychical strain of the period, more intense in some 
children than in others; but I venture to suggest 
that all such indifference, doubt, or whatever it may 
be, is largely due to the conflict of interests incident 
to the transition from one type of life to another. 

To conclude this discussion regarding the choice 
of children between the Old and the New Testament: 
Have we not in the development of children's interest 
in the main divisions of the Bible a verification of an 
age-long belief ? The Christian world has long been 
familiar with the thought that the Old Testament is 
preparatory to the New. The historical events 
recorded in the former have their culmination in the 
latter. The prophesies springing from the life of 
ancient Israel anticipate the life and utterances of 
Him who came out of Nazareth. The laws given 
at Sinai have their fulfilment in the Sermon on the 
Mount. In short, in the words of Paul: "The law 
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ."^ 
This popular view of the relation between the Old 
and the New Testament is being confirmed by the 
conclusions of modern biblical scholarship. The 
Hebrew Scriptures illustrate the general laws of 
development in the life of a people. Each step in 
the unfolding of Hebrew institutions, customs, laws, 
and moral and religious ideals, is related to all that 

I Gal. 3:24. 



Children's Interest in the Bible 69 

precedes and all that follows. The new dispensa- 
tion could not come till the old had prepared at 
least a few choice souls for its reception. The 
words of Paul, " When the fullness of time was come, 
God sent forth his Son,"' have thus their modern 
reading in the theory of human development. 

Choice among the hooks of the Bible. — The data 
summarized under this head contribute to the same 
general results as those reached in the preceding 
section. In addition, however, they bring to light 
the interests of children from a more distinctively 
educational point of view. The material of the 
Bible, as commonly given to children, may be classi- 
fied under the following heads: (i) historical (includ- 
ing the geographical), (2) prophetic, (3) gospel, and 
(4) doctrinal. To these may be added the literary, 
including the poetic and wisdom books. Following 
the lines of this classification, I have grouped the 
various books of the Bible for which the children 
indicated a preference, under six heads: historical, 
prophetic, poetic, wisdom, gospel, and doctrinal. 

At 8 years of age, the choice of the boys is equally 
divided between the historical and the gospel books. 
During the next three years, the interest in the 
historical books increases, reaching in the nth 
year 60 per cent. Thereafter, the historical interest 
declines, falling to 22 per cent, in the 14th year and 
to 8 per cent, in the 20th year. The interest in the 
gospel books falls ofif rapidly from the 8th to the 13th 
1 Gal. 4:4. 



70 The Child and His Religion 

year, reaching at that time 22 per cent. Then it rises 
steadily and rapidly to the 20th year, when it reaches 
78 per cent. Interest in the poetic books begins at 
9 years, rises steadily to the 14th year, when it 
reaches 2>2> per cent., and then falls off more or less 
irregularly to the 20th year, when it stands at 14 
per cent. From 12 to 15, there is some interest 
shown in the prophetic books, the maximum being 
18 per cent, in the 14th year. There is also a slight 
interest shown in the wisdom books from 16 to 18, 
the maximum being reached at 17, when the per- 
centage is seven. Not a single boy between the 
ages of 8 and 20 expressed a preference for a book 
that could be classed as doctrinal. 

The girls also distribute their preferences equally 
between the historical and gospel books to start with. 
The historical interest then declines to 37 per cent, 
at 10 years, rises steadily to 46 per cent, in the 13th 
year, and thereafter falls to zero in the 19th year. 
The interest in the gospel books falls to 30 per cent, 
in the 12th year, and thereafter rises steadily and 
rapidly to 90 per cent, in the 20th year. The poetic 
interest appears first in the 9th year, rises to 20 per 
cent, in the nth and 12th years, and then slowly 
declines to zero in the 17th year. Interest in the 
prophetic books has a somewhat uneven run from 
12 to 20, reaching its maximum at 12 and again at 
17. Interest in the wisdom books begins at 14, 
being at its maximum from that age to 15, and then 
declining to zero at 20. A slight interest is shown 



Children's Interest in the Bible 71 

in the doctrinal books from 19 to 20, the maximum 
being 10 per cent., at the latter age. 

In general, therefore, we have a somewhat wide 
distribution of interests up to the beginning of adoles- 
cence, with some advantage in favor of the historical 
books, especially on the part of the boys. Literary, 
prophetic, and wisdom books come more into favor 
in the years just preceding adolescence and maintain 
a somewhat prominent place throughout the early 
years of that period; while the gospel interest stands 
out conspicuously as the pre-eminent adolescent 
interest. These results are brought out more graph- 
ically in Charts III and IV. 

In interpreting the foregoing results, we have first 
to note that, in general, the preferences coincide with 
those considered in the preceding section. Thus, 
the preference for the historical books, which are 
mainly in the Old Testament, run more or less 
parallel with the preference for the first division of 
the Bible. The preference for the gospel books, 
which are in the New Testament, run more or less 
parallel with the second division of the Bible. This 
is not so much the case with the younger children. 
Here the choice of gospel books is not so general as 
is the choice of the New Testament as a whole, while 
the choice of historical books is more general than is 
that of the Old Testament as a whole. This dis- 
parity of choice is due, in part at least, to some chil- 
dren's choosing the Acts of the Apostles, which was 
classed among the historical books. In general, 



72 



The Child and His Religion 



therefore, the choice among the books of the Bible 
at different ages has the same explanation that has 
ahready been given to account for the choice between 
the Old and the New Testament. The preference 

CHART III 
Boys' Choice among the Various Books of the Bible 



100 

90 
80 
70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 
AGE 8 

























i 
















































^ 


















/ 








^^" 


— -' 




'--^ 










/ 








\ 








\ 




1 














\ 


N. 






\ 
\ 


/ 
















V 




-^ 


A. 


/ "- 


— 


\ 














^" 




^^ 


\ 


'\ 




____ 








^..-'' 


^ 




. /" 


/ 




N 


■^ 


*rrrt+* 


^-^ 


^^ 





10 n 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 

GOSPEL.-^— «— HISTORICAl POETIC. 

o—<H-o- PROPHETIC, mill I WISDOM. 

of the younger children for the gospel books is due 
to the fact that these books contain the scenes and 
incidents associated with the infancy of Jesus. The 
preference of the older children for the historical 
books is due to the fact that these books contain the 
elements most attractive to the egoistic and sensuous 



Children's Interest in the Bible 



73 



natures of such children, while the choice of gospel 
books by adolescents is explained by reference to the 
general ripening of the altruistic and reflective life 
at that period. 

CHART IV 

Girls' Choice among the Various Books of the Bible 



IOC 














■ 


































/ 


■"^ 


80 
70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 




















/ 


/ 




















^ 


/ 


















y 


^ 











^X, 


">» 


\ 




.-' 


\ 


/ 














'■^v 




\ 




V 


f- 
























''"n 


— 


'^^, 










/ 


/' 








L 






\ 

\ 






/" 


/ 




/ 


^ 


?^ 




-■*« 
^ 


K 






^^' 




. 


^^^ 


F^ 



AGE 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 

GOSPEL. ^ HISTORICAL. . — —POETIC. 

,PROPHETIC. H«w*«+fH WISDOM. goeaocooeOOCTRtNAL. 



However, we may look at children's choice among 
the books of the Bible from a somewhat different 
point of view and in greater detail. First, as to the 
choice of historical books. It has been found that 
the interest of public-school children in history and 
geography is marked during the period from 9 or 10, 



74 The Child and His Religion 

on to 13 or 14. Mrs. Barnes' found that the historic 
sense has a rapid development during these years. 
Her curves are very similar to those shown in the 
above diagrams. She concludes that from 7 years 
on, history becomes an increasingly attractive sub- 
ject for children, though the larger historical interest 
does not develop, perhaps, before 11 or 12. Miss 
Ward,^ who studied the geographical interests of 
several thousand children, finds that there is a 
marked interest in places, especially in places that 
have human associations. I have studied the general 
school interests of over 1,000 children in the public 
schools of Springfield, Mass., and find that both the 
historical and geographical interests begin to be 
prominent at 10 years. These facts make it prob- 
able that children from 9 to 10 years, on to 13 or 
14, will be naturally interested in the historical and 
geographical elements of the Bible. There is also 
another fact to be taken into account in this connec- 
tion. There is evidence for believing that children 
during this period have especial aptitude for mem- 
orizing. All those studies that involve a constant 
exercise of memory, such as language, arithmetic, 
geography, and history, are more easily taught to 
children at this time. Street^ concludes from his 
study of language-training that children acquire 
languages most readily from 8 to 12 years. Bolton'^ 

1 Studies in Education, pp. 43-52, 83-93. 

2 Education, Vol. XVIII. 

3 Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. IV, pp. 269-93. 

4 American Journal of Psychology, Vol. IV. 



Children's Interest in the Bible 75 

found that the memory of children for numbers 
practically reaches its maximimi in the grades 
below the high school. Shaw^ found that the mem- 
ory of children for the essential elements of a story 
culminated just before the high-school period is 
reached. Scripture"" found that the time-memory in 
children reaches its greatest accuracy at about 13 or 
14 years. These investigations indicate that the 
period of life in question is peculiarly adapted for 
fact-studies, which make great demands upon the 
memory. And this again renders it probable that 
children's preference for the historical books of the 
Bible is based, in part, upon certain special intellec- 
tual aptitudes. 

Next, as to the choice of prophetic and literary 
books. "Prophecy" consists of two things as ap- 
plied to the Bible: (i) the revelation of coming 
events; and (2) the speaking forth of the deeper 
truths of Hfe. Perhaps, in the last analysis, these 
two things are one, but we ordinarily consider them 
distinct. Now, adolescence is the "Golden Age" of 
prophecy. It is then that the individual conscious- 
ness is reborn into the consciousness of the race. 
The deeper truths of existence are yearned for and 
glimpsed. There is a moral and religious ferment, 
and the loftiest and the most sordid ideals struggle 
for mastery. Moreover, it is then that the human 
soul looks most anxiously into the future. Perhaps 

I Pedagogical Seminary, Vol. IV, pp. 61-78. 
3 Thinking, Feeling, Doing, p. 251. 



76 The Child and His Religion 

it looks farthest into the future. Certainly it tries 
then, as at no other time, to learn its horoscope. 
Witness the idealizing, the day-dreaming, the fortune- 
telling devices of young people. Lancaster^ in his 
study of the psychology and pedagogy of adolescence, 
has collected data illustrating both these aspects of 
the prophetic spirit. The longing for the more 
vital truths of life, and the far-looking into the future, 
recur again and again in the returns received from 
the youth of both sexes. Adolescence is also the 
period when literary feeling and aspirations ripen. 
These are offshoots of the aesthetic nature, and 
studies of adolescent life bring to light the fact that 
all the forms of aesthetic feeling and activity begin 
to crop out early in this period. In the study of 
children's school interests already referred to, I have 
found that the interest in painting, drawing, and 
music increases rapidly from 12 years on. Lancaster 
found that of 100 actors, 50 poets, 100 musicians, 50 
artists, and 100 writers, the majority had achieved 
success in their art before the age of 20, showing that 
the life of aesthetic feeling and idealism is well 
developed in early adolescence. The preference of 
children for the prophetic and literary books of the 
Bible, in the early adolescent years, is, therefore, 
doubtless an expression of more general moral and 
aesthetic interests. 

Finally, as to the choice of gospel books: This is 
pre-eminently the choice of the adolescent. From 

I Pedagogical Seminary , Vol. V, pp. 61-128. 



Children's Interest in/^ the Bible 77 

what has ahready been said, it is evident that adoles- 
cence needs, and seeks, above everything else, some 
kind of a philosophy and regimen of life. Life has 
become a thing fraught with a new but vague mean- 
ing; the struggle is to make its meaning clear. Life 
has become a larger, richer thing; the struggle is to 
learn the method by which its largeness and richness 
may be personally realized. The quickening of 
moral feeling leads to self-scrutiny and an apprehen- 
sion of more or less friction between the self and the 
best environments. The quickening of the religious 
feelings begets a desire to get adjusted to the largest 
and best ideals. The quickening of the sense of life, 
as lived through others and for others, awakens the 
impulse to become a part of the great cosmic struggle 
for more complete existence. In the gospels is found 
the Christian philosophy of life; and in the gospels is 
found the Christian regimen of life, in its broad out- 
lines. For the gospels reveal the personality of One 
who "came that they might have life and that they 
might have it more abundantly," and Christian 
philosophy sums itself up in personal character. 
And the gospels reveal broadly the Christian regimen 
of life, for this is simply to follow where He leads. 
It is not surprising, therefore, that, when the mean- 
ing and method of life are sought with such earnest 
zest as during the adolescent years, the Christian 
explanation of what life is, and how it may be lived, 
should be of interest. 

Choice of Bible scenes, stories, and characters. — The 



78 



The Child and His Religion 



data collected under this head bear upon three points : 
(i) the scenes, stories, and characters that are most 
liked; (2) the development of interest in the scenic, 
narrative, and personal elements; and (3) the com- 
parative interest in the three classes of elements at 
different ages. Preferences were shown for 57 differ- 
ent Bible scenes, 26 from the Old Testament and 31 
from the New. Of these, the 15 most popular scenes 
are the following: 



Daniel in the Lions' Den 

The Crucifixion 

The Birth of Jesus 

Jesus Blessing Little Children. 

The Lord's Supper 

Feeding the Five Thousand. . . 

Jesus Walking on the Sea 

The Resurrection 

The Finding of Moses 

The Raising of Lazarus 

The Transfiguration 

Jesus before the Wise Men. . . . 

Jesus' Triumphal Entry 

The Woman at the Well 

T&e Stilling of the Tempest. . . 



Boys 


Girls 


53 


52 


45 
27 


Z2, 
38 


13 


42 


30 


23 


25 


24 


10 
18 


27 
18 


13 
8 


21 

24 


10 


21 


5 


20 


12 


13 


IS 


10 


12 


12 



Total 

lOS 
78 
65 

55 
53 
49 
37 
36 
34 
32 
31 
25 

25 

25 
24 



It will be observed that all but 2 of these 15 scenes 
are from the New Testament. Probably this is to be 
accounted for, in part, by the influence of pictures. 
Many of the scenes mentioned are the commonest 
subjects of the masterpieces of Christian art, repro- 
ductions of which appear in pictorial Bibles, Sunday- 
school literature, and the like. It is also due, un- 
doubtedly, to the intrinsic attractiveness of the per- 
sonality and works of Jesus. All of the scenes from 



Children's Interest in the Bible 79 

the New Testament have him as their central jQgure, 
three presenting hi^l as a child or in connection with 
children. The most popular scene of all, however, 
is Daniel in the Lions' Den. This is unquestionably 
one of the most graphic scenes in the Bible when 
given pictorial representation, as it often is, in reli- 
gious literature. This fact is sufficient to account for 
its popularity. The popularity of the Crucifixion is 
doubtless due, in part, to Christian art and to the 
emphasis placed in religious teaching upon the death 
of Jesus. It is also, probably, due to a lurking fond- 
ness in some children for cruel and tragic scenes. 
One boy, in describing his preferences, said, " I like 
anything that has murder and such things in it." It 
is to be hoped that not many children share this feel- 
ing. But there is here suggested a possibility that 
should inspire caution in those who are disposed to 
dwell upon such scenes in religious teaching. 

The choice of Bible stories has a total range of 2,^, 
23 of these being drawn from the Old Testament and 
15 from the New. The most popular of these are 
given in the table on the following page. 

It appears from this that Old Testament stories are 
more popular than are New Testament stories, the 
5 standing highest in the list being drawn from the 
Old Testament. These 5 stories have all the essen- 
tial elements that make such productions attractive 
to the young — heroic characters, heroic situations, 
heroic actions. The same is true, in a somewhat 
less degree, of the remaining 5 stories drawn from the 



8o 



The Child and His Religion 



Old Testament. From all that has been said about 
the egoistic sensuous life of children in the earlier 
years, we are prepared to understand why the story- 
interest should center in that division of the Bible. 



1. The Selling of Joseph 

2. David and Goliath 

3. Daniel and the Assyrian Kings. 

4. Moses and Pharaoh's Daughter 

5. The Story of Ruth 

6. Story of Jesus' Birth 

7. The Prodigal Son 

8. Story of Noah's Ark 

9. The Calling of Samuel 

10. Samson and the Philistines 

11. The Flight into Egj'pt 

12. Jonah and the Whale 

13. Story of Esther 

14. Changing Water into Wine 

I!?. The Good Samaritan 



Boys 


Girls 


48 


99 


50 


50 


43 


41 


25 


44 


10 


41 


20 


29 


IS 


23 


20 


18 


16 


16 


20 


7 


3 


IS 


10 


7 


7 


10 


5 


12 


5 


II 



Total 

147 
100 

84 

69 

51 

49 

38 

38 

2,2 

27 

18 

17 
17 
17 
16 



The most popular story in the New Testament is that 
of Jesus' birth, many of the youngest children choos- 
ing this, as we might expect from what has preceded. 
But one story in this group of 15 is based upon a 
miracle, and this probably owed its interest for chil- 
dren to the human elements involved. In general, 
few children expressed a liking for miracles. 

A total of 45 Bible characters were chosen — 25 
Old Testament characters and 20 New Testament 
characters. The 15 most popular are given in the 
table on the following page. 

From the foregoing, it appears the three characters 
most often chosen, are New Testament characters. 
The boys distribute their preferences equplly among 



Children's Interest in the Bible 



8i 



these. A much larger percentage of the girls, how- 
ever, choose John the Disciple, while more of the 
girls choose Peter than Jesus. The qualities found 
in John are sufficient to account for his popularity. 
He is a gentle, loving, yet manly, character. He is 

Total 



1. John the Disciple 

2. Peter 

3. Jesus 

4. David 

5. Moses 

6. Paul 

7. Joseph 

8. Daniel 

9. Samuel 

10. Ruth 

11. Elijah 

12. Abraham 

13. Solomon 

14. John the Baptist 

15. Mary, the Mother of Jesus. 



Boys 


Girls 


48 


104 


48 


77 


48 


66 


49 


65 


44 


59 


31 


63 


32 


43 


19 


36 


13 


17 


7 


17 


16 


8 


10 


II 


II 


9 


8 


7 


4 


II 



152 

125 

114 
114 
103 

94 
75 
55 
30 
24 
24 
21 
20 
15 
15 



doubtless also loved for the sake of his Master, 
whom he so fittingly portrayed in the Fourth Gospel. 
The prominence of Peter is not so easily understood. 
Aside from his rugged, virile manhood, we have 
probably to take into account his unique place in 
Jesus' regard and the distinction he has enjoyed in 
church history. It may seem strange that Jesus 
should rank lowest in the total preferences shown for 
these three New Testament characters. I am in- 
clined to believe that this is not accidental, however. 
It is doubtful if the younger children at least were 
influenced by the theological estimate of Jesus. They 
probably see only the human Jesus, and if they think 



82 The Child and His Religion 

of Jesus as a man, when they are asked to express a 
choice between him and another man, they do so with 
the same candor that they show in other matters. I 
doubt not that Jesus is naturally the most attractive 
character in the Bible for children of all ages. This 
study shows that, as a child, he is more often chosen 
by the younger children than is any other character. 
It seems to me probable that this preference would 
continue among older children if the latter were 
allowed spontaneously to grow into an appreciation 
of the adult Jesus. But religious teachers are usually 
so anxious to present Jesus to children as a divine 
person, and children's minds are so unable to grasp 
the mystical implications of this dogma, that the 
human Jesus is taken away from them and the divine 
Jesus is made an intellectual abstraction. The 
result is, that the child can love neither the one nor 
the other. This religious forcing will inevitably 
shift the interest of a child to a character whose simple 
humanity it can understand and love. I believe 
this will account for the preference which so large a 
percentage of the girls show for John. 

Among the Old Testament characters chosen, the 
most prominent are David, Moses, Joseph, and 
Daniel. This is what we would expect from what we 
have already learned of children's preference for the 
heroic and dramatic elements of the Old Testament. 

As regards the development of interest in the 
scenic, narrative, and personal elements of the Bible, 
we find: (i) That, in general, the interest in scenes 



Children's Interest in the Bible St, 

and stories is somewhat more marked in the younger 
children than in the older; and (2) that the interest 
in characters increases with advancing age. Refer- 
ence to Charts V and VI makes this sufficiently 
clear. From these charts it will also be observed 
that the comparative interest in the three classes of 
elements at different ages is overwhelmingly in favor 
of the characters. The larger percentage of children 
of all ages are attracted more strongly to the personal 
elements of the Bible than to any other. This is 
shown not alone by the preference expressed for 
characters, but also by the choice of scenes and nar- 
ratives themselves. Thus, of the 57 scenes men- 
tioned, all but 4 have their center of interest in per- 
sons; while of the ;^d> Bible stories selected, all but 
3 owe their interest to the characters that take part in 
them. ♦ 

Sufficient has already been said in this and preced- 
ing sections to explain most of the above results. The 
overwhelming interest of children of all ages in the 
personal elements of the Bible deserves further dis- 
cussion, however. The human interest of children 
has been generally observed by those who have 
studied the psychology of childhood. To adapt the 
sentiment of the Latin poet, nothing of human con- 
cern is foreign to the child. The first efforts of the 
little boy to realize his artistic ideals are usually 
pictures of men. The principal play activities are 
reproductions of the lives of adult men and women. 
The reading interests of older children run mainly 



84 The Child and His Religion 

along the line of biography, or fiction in which the 
character element is prominent. Atkinson, in com- 
menting upon the reading-interest of boys at the 
high-school period, says: "The liking for biography 
is remarkable. One boy read the lives of Grant, 
Garfield, Sherman, and Blaine. Another read the 
lives of Charlemagne, Cromwell, David Crockett, 
Daniel Boone, and Buffalo Bill."' Mrs. Barnes,^ 
from her study of the historic sense of children, con- 
cludes that history should primarily be taught 
through the biographies of heroic and striking char- 
acters. Miss Ward,3 who has investigated the geo- 
graphical interest of children, finds that five-sixths 
of the preferences for towns, cities, or countries 
reveal a human interest. Miss Ward mentions Anna 
Buckbee as having made a similar study to her own, 
with similar results, and concludes by saying: " Does 
not the strong human interest shown by children 
lead us to unite with Miss Buckbee in asking if this 
does not show that the earth should be taught as the 
home of man?" The sentiment thus expressed is 
rapidly becoming general in educational circles. 
History, geography, literature, and the elementary 
sciences are being taught more and more from the 
viewpoint of their human interest. In the light of 

1 "A Year's Study of the Entering Pupils of the Springfield 
(Mass.) High School," Proceedings of the National Education 
Association, 1898. 

2 Studies in Education, p. 90. 

3 Education, Vol. XVIII. 



Children'' s Interest in the Bible 



85 



such facts, the significance of children's predominant 
interest in the personal elements of the Bible becomes 
clear. Have we not here a suggestion that the Bible, 
too, may best be given to children through the 
medium of personal incident and biography ? 

CHART V 

Comparative Choice among Boys of Bible Characters, Stories, 

AND Scenes 



i 
too- 

90 
80 
70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 

to 







































































_ 


\ 








/ 


,^ 






/ 


V 


^ 












/ 








f 










/ 


V 


y 






















\ 






















V 


/ 


\ 


\ 


^.'■^ 


^.,x 


m"—" 


N. 










\ 


/ 
/ 


\ 


y 


^"- 


A 




X- 


/ 

7-'- 


\ 


"'"'^ 


■•^' 




















> 


^-'' 


,^' 



AGE 8 



10 11 12 13 14 IS 16 
^CHARACTERS. .....STORIES. 



17 18 19 20 
SCENES. 



Development of interest in Jesus. — Finally, we 
may examine the data bearing upon children's 
interest in Bible characters, with a view to discover- 
ing whether there is any change from period to period 
in their regard for Jesus. For purposes of compari- 
son, it^will be helpful to note the development of 



86 



The Child and His Religion 



interest in John the Disciple, and David, the most 
popular characters in the New and the Old Testa- 
ment, respectively. First of all, we should remem- 
ber that what has been said about little children's 
fondness for the infant Jesus will not hold to the 

CHART VI 
Comparative Choice among Girls of Bible Characters, Stories, 

AND Scenes 



100 
90 
80 
70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 



AGE 8 9 10 n 12 13 H 15 16 17 18 19 20 
—CHARACTERS. —.-—STORIES SCENES. 

same extent in the choice of Jesus as an adult 
character. In the former case, Jesus was thought 
of in the environment of childhood. His attrac- 
tiveness for children was revealed through their 
fondness for the scenes and incidents connected 
with that period. In the latter case, he is 


































































■ — 


\, 






^^ 










/ 










\ 


^ 


y^ 








^ 


/ 
































































\. 





■^— 


-^ 


\ 




^ ^ 












/^ 




''•> 


y 


N 


-^ 




^^ 


^- 


.,. 


— 


— 



























Children's Interest in the Bible 87 

thought of in relation to other adults and to adult 
environments. 

The boys express no preference for Jesus until the 
loth year. Beginning at this age with 10 per cent., 
their interest increases somewhat rapidly up to 14, 
and then less rapidly throughout the remaining years 
included in the study. From 17 years on, approxi- 
mately, 60 per cent, of the boys include Jesus in 
their list of preferences. The girls' interest begins 
with 20 per cent., at 8 years, and rises steadily up 
to the 15th year, when it stands at 60 per cent. 
Thereafter, it declines somewhat, although remain- 
ing throughout above 50 per cent. Generally speak- 
ing, therefore, the interest in Jesus is an adolescent 
interest, manifesting itself strongly at the beginning 
of that period and continuing throughout. The 
interest in John the Disciple, on the other hand, 
covers a shorter period. It is mainly an interest of 
early adolescence. In the case of the girls, it rises 
sharply from 10 years on, culminating at 13, with 
68 per cent. The boys' interest rises less abruptly, 
reaching its culmination in the i6th year, with 50 
per cent. Thereafter, in both boys and girls, the 
curve of interest falls rapidly. Finally, the interest 
in David is, in general, a pre-adolescent interest. It 
is strongly manifested from 9 to 12, reaching approxi- 
mately its highest point at the latter age, in the case of 
the girls, and then remaining constant up to 15, 
when it falls off rapidly. The boys' interest cul- 
minates at 14, when it also declines, the percentage 



88 



The Child and His Religion 



of both sexes falling to zero in the 19th year. These 
results will appear more clearly in the following 
charts. 



100 



CHART VII 

Children's Interest in Jestts 













































































































^ 


/ 


--. 


;^ 


"-^.^ 
















^^^ 


'■) 


^ 
















/ 


'' 




/ 
















x 




/ 


y 




















^ 


/ 












































aG^« 



10 



11 12 13 
I.. BOYS. 



H 



15 16 
..GtRWS. 



20 



We have, therefore, the outstanding fact that chil- 
dren's interest in Jesus, as an adult, is an adolescent 
interest. This is what we should expect from the 
numerous tendencies of this period of life, elsewhere 
referred to. In considering the general interest of 
adolescents in the New Testament, we found that 
this runs parallel with the ripening of the altruistic 
and reflective consciousness. Thus, it is the opinion 
of those who have studied the religious aspects of 



Children's Interest in the Bible 



89 



adolescence that the character and teaching of Jesus 
appeal strongly to the adolescent mind. Lancaster 
says: 

Adolescents will sacrifice and perform duty for the Master 
as at no other time of life. Instruction should take the form 



100 
90 

eo 

70 
60 
50 
40 
30 
20 
10 

AGE 8 



CHART VIII 
Children s Interest in John the Disciple 



> 
















































































/ 
/ 


\ 






















/ 
/ 

7 


\ 
\ 


,y 


\ 
\ 

V 














/ 


..•-■^ 


r- 






/ 


\ 


--. 










n 
/ 
/ 






/ 






" \ 










..'1 


/ 


/ 




/ 










\^ 


\^ 


^ 







/ 














\ 


\ 


> 

























10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 II 



19 20 



of an appeal to free, spontaneous loyalty to the King, an d 
Jesus should be presented as the ideal, heroic God-man, His 
self-sacrifice and self-denial, his suffering and passion may 
be taught with the assurance that they will appeal most 
strongly to the soul-Hfe of the adolescents.^ 

I "The Psychology and Pedagogy of Adolescence," Pedagogi- 
cal Seminary y Vol. V, p. 128. 



go 



The Child and His Religion 



This intrinsic attractiveness of the personaHty of 
Jesus for young people, appears in what is called con- 
version. The meaning attached to the latter by 
evangelical Christianity is essentially the acceptance 
of Jesus as a personal Savior. As has already been 













CHART IX 












Children's Interest m David 




i 






100' 
90- 



























80- 
70- 
























— - 


60- 







































/ 


\ 


















^-» 


J 


1 


r" 




X 










30- 




^^^ 




/ 










^v" 


■^ 


\ 






/ 


^ 





/ 














\ 




10 






















\ 




AGE { 


J 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 1 


7 18 19 2( 






B0> 


i%. 




.— 


— Gl 


RLS. 









pointed out, statistical studies of conversion show 
that this is an adolescent phenomenon. Starbuck' 
found that the curve of conversion reached its 
maximum at i6, for both sexes, though a considerable 
percentage of conversions among the girls took place 

I Psychology of Religion. 



Children's Interest in the Bible 91 

in the 13 th year. Gulick^ found that the maximum 
for boys was reached in the i8th year, with a large 
number falh'ng in the i6th year also. In general, 
these investigations show that most young people 
who enter the church, do so in the first half of adoles- 
cent life. This virtually coincides with the period 
of maximum interest in Jesus, as shown in Chart 
VII. The attractiveness of Jesus for adolescents is 
therefore but one of a large class of phenomena, 
which the investigation of adolescent life is bringing 
to light. It would seem to afford another and 
weighty reason for concluding that this period of 
life is the time when the human soul spontaneously 
opens to the ideals of character and conduct which 
Jesus represents. 

Conclusions. — The most general conclusion grow- 
ing out of this study of children's Bible interests, is 
that it confirms the results obtained from similar 
studies along other lines, and is, in turn, confirmed 
by them. This fact goes far toward offsetting any 
suspicion as to method or completeness of data. It 
cannot be accidental that children's interest in the 
Old Testament falls mainly in a period of life which 
experimental studies of children's mental aptitudes, 
as well as their historical, geographical, reading, 
play, and other interests, have shown to be char- 
acterized by just the instinctive tendencies and 
intellectual qualities that the material of the Old 
Testament most powerfully appeals to. Nor can 

I Association Outlook, Vol. VIII, pp. 33-48. 



92 The Child and His^ Religion 

it be accidental that adolescent interest in the gospels, 
and in Jesus, runs parallel with the general altruistic 
and religious interests brought to light by the various 
studies of adolescence. It seems to me, therefore, 
that this concurrence of results does two things: (i) 
It vindicates the point of view and method of the 
present study; and (2) it serves to strengthen the 
conclusions which the study suggests. These con- 
clusions are as follows: 

I. Children up to 8 or 9 years are more interested 
in the portions of the New Testament which give 
accounts of the birth and childhood of Jesus. They 
are interested, however, in Old Testament stories 
relating to the childhood or youth of characters like 
Moses, Samuel, Joseph, and David. This suggests 
that children of this age should be given instruction 
in the Bible from the viewpoint of the childhood of 
the Bible, beginning with Jesus and using the others 
for purposes of comparative study. Of course, such 
material would serve only as the nucleus of the pri- 
mary curriculum. Around this could be grouped a 
great diversity of material derived from studies in 
nature, art, industries, and other departments of 
human life, so selected and presented as to give the 
children a religious outlook upon their environment. 
A great deal of the material of the corresponding 
grades of the public schools could be appropriated, 
and given an ethical and religious interpretation. 
This could be done most effectively, as it seems to 
me, through the medium of this great World-Soul, 
who summed up in His character and life all the 



Children'' s Interest in the Bible 93 

most fundamental human interests, who came into 
the world through the gateway of childhood, and 
who said: "Suffer little children, and forbid them 
not, to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of 
heaven." 

2. From 9 years, on to 13 or 14, children are more 
interested in the Old Testament. This interest 
shows itself more especially in a fondness for the 
historical books, the literary and prophetic books, 
and the heroic and dramatic elements generally. 
This suggests that the religious curriculum for this 
period should occupy itself with the history, geog- 
raphy, literature, prophecy, and general moral and 
religious contents of the first division of the Bible. 
It would coincide with the grades of public-school 
work above the primary and below the high school, 
in that it would deal essentially with fact-studies. It 
would really mark the beginning of formal biblical 
instruction, the instruction of the earlier period being 
more general and unsystematic. The order of 
material would be: (i) history and geography, (2) 
literature, and (3) prophecy. The moral and reli- 
gious elements would be involved throughout. Inci- 
dentally, the history of other ancient peoples, and, 
at least, the elements of comparative religion could 
be taught. Much might profitably be made of the 
manners and customs, and the social life, especially 
as reflected in the industries, religious and political 
ceremonials, and feats of arms. Sacred art might 
be brought into requisition to aid in the study of 



94 The Child and His Religion 

characters and customs. This is the period for 
memorizing selected passages of Scripture, such as 
Psalms, Proverbs, etc. 

3. Children in the adolescent period show a de- 
cided interest in the New Testament, especially in 
the four gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. They 
also show a very special interest in Jesus and the 
principal disciples. The interest in John the Dis- 
ciple, is an early adolescent interest, while the interest 
in Jesus culminates somewhat later, and is sustained 
throughout. This suggests that the material of 
instruction for adolescence should be derived largely 
from the New Testament. It would center in 
Jesus and his teachings, the principal disciples being 
studied incidentally. The study of types of Chris- 
tian character and the development of Christian 
thought and institutions might very profitably be 
extended to the later history of Christianity. Every 
possible sidelight of history, literature, art, and 
science could be utilized in revealing the ideals of 
Christian manhood and Christian society. The 
religious instruction of this period should, it seems 
to me, aim to establish a correct personal relation- 
ship with the Divine Father and with society. Altru- 
istic and religious feelings should be made use of to 
stimulate and guide a spirit of co-operation with God 
and men. 

4. At all ages, children feel more interest in persons 
than in any other elements of the Bible. Even 
Bible scenes and stories appeal to them mainly 



Children's Interest in the Bible 95 

through the man, woman, or child that is the center 
of the scene or the principal actor in the story. This 
suggests that the Bible should be given to children, 
of all ages, through its personal element. Thus, the 
Bible should be given to young children through the 
child Jesus. Everything in either the Old or the 
New Testament that could be properly used to 
make this human child Jesus intelligible and lovable 
should be employed. No theological explanation 
of his birth, nature, or mission need be attempted. 
The spontaneous love of one child for another may 
be trusted to give Jesus a secure place in the affec- 
tions of children, if he is presented simply and 
attractively. And it is better that the affections 
should be enlisted in this matter than the intellect. 
God, whom the little child should have already come 
to know through its sense of causality as instructed by 
older people, may be given anew to it as the Father of 
this Child of Bethlehem, whom so large a portion of 
mankind loves and serves. But, whatever the theo- 
logical belief of parents or teachers, there can be no 
economy, at this early period, in making God and 
Jesus the persons of a mystical trinity. They should 
be kept separate in the child's thought, as Father and 
Child, each standing for what such terms connote. 
Any attempt to invest Jesus with the mysteries of 
divine incarnation and sacrificial function must, it 
seems to me, detract from his simplicity and lovable- 
ness in the estimation of little children. 
Again, the Bible should be given to children from 



96 The Child and His Religion 

8 or 9 years, on to 13 or 14, through the heroes of the 
Old Testament. These heroes may be selected with 
especial reference to their importance to history or 
prophecy, or with reference to their moral and 
religious example. The number is sufficiently large 
to give ample choice in these directions. When such 
a selection of heroes has been made, their characters, 
deeds, and sayings may become the media through 
which the children shall be taught Hebrew history 
and geography, moral and religious principles, and 
anything else that the Old Testament can supply for 
purposes of religious instruction. Finally, the Bible 
should be given to adolescents through Jesus as an 
adult, and, incidentally, through the disciples and 
apostles who have interpreted his character and 
teachings. Here, again, all historical or geographical 
material, all doctrines and exhortations, all individual 
and social elements of ethics or religion that the 
New Testament presents, should be taught through 
the personal medium most closely identified with 
them. In Trinitarian circles, this would be the time 
to give the theological interpretation of Jesus' char- 
acter and fimction. Having established the human 
Jesus in the affections of childhood, and having 
guided the child throughout the intervening years 
along the lines of a healthy, normal life which finds 
the fulfilment of its ideals in this same Jesus, any 
doctrines of the Godhead or the atonement that may 
seem necessary to a religious philosophy, may be 
added. In any case, the spontaneous interest in 



Children's Interest in the Bible 97 

Jesus should be seized upon to bring the adolescent 
lives into harmony with him, and to make his teach- 
ings effective in establishing a correct regimen of 
conduct as it affects the self and others. 



CHAPTER IV 
THE PROBLEM OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION 

Complexity of the problem. — The problem of 
religious education has never been so complex and 
difficult to formulate as it is at present. No state- 
ment has yet been made of the aims, subject-matter, 
and methods of religious education, in terms of 
modern knowledge, and the felt needs of modern 
life, that is generally satisfactory. Such a statement 
will not here be attempted. I hope only to sketch 
some of its outlines in the light of the principles dis- 
cussed in the preceding chapters, and certain gen- 
erally accepted conclusions of secular education. 

In the earlier generations of Christianity, when 
it was believed that men's religious life could be com- 
passed by a body of religious doctrines, the problem 
of religious education was comparatively simple. 
Instruction in a catechism, the memorizing of theo- 
logical statements of belief, and the formal assent to 
dogmas thought to be essential to salvation, sufficed 
for such education. Still later, when religious 
instruction was based upon the Bible, and the sub- 
ject-matter consisted of Scripture passages, selected 
more or less with reference to denominational ends, 
and presented through the medium of formal ques- 
tions and answers, the problem was hardly more 
difficult. In both these types of religious education, 

I ^' 99 



loo The Child and His Religion 

the aim in view was definite and immediate, namely, 
to indoctrinate the child with religious beliefs and 
get him formally identified with the church. The 
subject-matter likewise was prescriptive and simple 
in character. It was necessary only to draw upon 
the historic creeds, or select passages of Scripture 
according to certain standards of faith and practice. 
In some religious communities, such conceptions of 
the aim and subject-matter of religious education 
still survive, and here, of course, the problem is a 
simple one. 

But wherever religious communities have felt the 
influence of modern learning, and the example of 
secular education, and wherever, as a result, enlarged 
conceptions of man's religious nature have been 
formed, the problem of religious education has 
grown accordingly. In such communities religious 
education is repeating the history of secular educa- 
tion. The vastly enlarged knowledge of human 
nature and its needs, the increased complexity of 
civilization, the enormously enriched body of culture- 
material available and the clash between older 
standards and instruments of education and the 
newer standards and instruments which current life 
seem to demand — all unite to make the problem of 
education increasingly complex, and create confusion 
and divided counsel in educational circles. Just so 
in religious education, which must participate in the 
general movement of modern knowledge and civiliza- 
tion, has there resulted confusion and divided 



Problem of Religious Education loi 

counsel. In both cases, education, like the civiliza- 
tion it is a part of, is in a state of transition. With 
increasing knowledge and complexity of life, ideals, 
programmes, and institutions must change. It is not 
to be wondered at, under such conditions, if educators 
of all types are in doubt as to just what elements 
will finally enter into the problem of education. 
How far the present generation has departed from 
the earlier conceptions of religious education, which 
were largely satisfied with doctrinal instruction, may 
be seen in the work of the Religious Education As- 
sociation. At the third convention of this organiza- 
tion, held at Boston in 1905, the entire programme 
was devoted to formulating the aims of religious 
education. So broadly diverse were the discussions 
that they touched upon every phase of religious and 
ethical life, and reflected the work of every type of 
social institution that is dedicated to the work of 
spiritualizing mankind. Two years later, at the 
fourth convention, held at Rochester, N. Y., the 
entire programme was occupied with discussions 
regarding the material of religious education. There 
was here the same breadth and catholicity of views 
as in the previous convention. Every type of cul- 
ture-material, from the Bible to the play-ground, was 
presented as having value in the religious education 
of children. All this marks a significant change 
from the conceptions of religious education held by 
the early catechists, or even by the makers of Sunday- 
schooljessons a generation ago. 



I02 The Child and His Religion 

Suggestions from secular education. — In consider- 
ing the problem of religious education, we may start 
with certain principles and ideals that are now 
generally accepted in secular education. Here we 
find that, amidst all the conflicting opinions as to aim 
and material of education, a few great fundamental 
conclusions have been forced upon educators by 
modern science. These conclusions, with varying 
terminology, have begun to find expression in a new 
educational philosophy. 

1. Education is a part of man's effort to do what 
nature is always trying to do for him. It is the will 
to live, become effective through specially devised 
institutions and curricula of study. It is conscious 
adjustment to a progressive environment. It is a 
preparation for life, and a medium of more complete 
living while this preparation is being made. It is a 
social agency by which each new generation of chil- 
dren is put in possession of its racial heritage, while 
at the same time being enabled to realize its own 
selfhood as a new generation. 

2. Education can be accomplished only through 
interactions between the mind and the objective 
world. It depends primarily upon things experi- 
enced, and not upon words which symbolize the 
things experienced. It must be motor, as well as 
sensory and reflective. It must occupy itself not 
only with stimulating feeling and imparting ideas, but 
also with securing adequate expression for these 
feelings and ideas through conduct. 



Problem of Religious Education 103 

3. Education involves complete self-expression. 
Knowledge does not become a possession until it is 
reacted to personally. Mind, and life itself, have, 
in the last analysis, two modes of functioning : They 
receive from the outside world, and they make some 
kind of response to the world they receive from. 
Health, growth, and efficiency depend upon main- 
taining a proper balance between these two functions. 
If the receptive function exceeds that of response, 
there is decay of the power to do, while the thinking 
and feeling processes become feeble, or perverted. 
If the responsive function is not in harmony with the 
receiving function, action and conduct become false 
and the reflex effect upon character is to destroy it. 

These general conclusions suggest the problem 
of secular education, as regards aim, subject-matter, 
and method. They are equally applicable to 
religious education, and we may safely follow their 
direction in sketching the problem with which the 
latter is concerned. 

The aim of religious education. — If the aim of edu- 
cation in general may be summarized as adjustment 
to a progressive environment, the aim of religious 
education may be summarized as religious adjust- 
ment to a progressive environments That is to say, 
the distinction between secular education and 

I By "environment" is meant the things and forces that 
ultimately condition life. By "progressive environment" is 
meant these things and forces under increasingly complex and 
perfected aspects. 



I04 The Child and His Religion 

religious education is not one of environment but 
of adjustment. The environment of a secular man 
and of a religious man is intrinsically the same. The 
environment of a religious man is the same, whether 
he be at his place of business or in a church pew. 
There is but one universe and but one set of laws 
governing it. There is but one law of gravity, and 
one law of good and evil. Environment is one, as 
the world is one. But man's adjustment to this 
environment may vary. It may be a business ad- 
justment, an intellectual adjustment, a religious ad- 
justment. The difference lies in the attitude one 
takes toward environment, the interpretation he 
places upon it, and the use to which he applies it. 
Religious education, therefore, has for its function 
the effecting of such an adjustment between human 
life and its environment as will lead men to take a 
religious attitude toward that environment, interpret 
it religiously, and use it for the larger ends toward 
which all rational conduct is directed. 

Let us note in some detail what this would mean 
for religious education. We may take as an illustra- 
tion the radical change it would involve in the atti- 
tude toward nature, natural laws, and the natural 
impulses and aptitudes of the soul. For the things 
and forces that are described by the term "natural," 
constitute the most constant and obvious forms of 
environment. In the chapter on "Interest and 
Education," and again in that on "The Natural 
Religion of Children," we have found that the trend 



Problem of Religious Education 105 

of educational history and of scientific knowledge 
is toward a view of human life that identifies it more 
and more completely with what have been called 
'^natural" processes. We are now ready to follow 
up this clue and seek out its religious implications. 
What, then, would be the result if a religious ad- 
justment should be effected between the human 
mind and nature such as would harmonize with this 
trend in educational history and scientific knowl- 
edge? In general, nature would come to be re- 
garded from a religious point of view, would be inter- 
preted religiously, and would be used for the larger 
and more spiritual purposes of life. This means that 
God would be identified with nature. The so-called 
natural laws would be regarded as God's laws. The 
supernatural would no longer be set over against the 
natural. The scientific law of the conservation of 
energy would be interpreted as a divine law, efficient 
in the world of spirit as in the world of matter, and 
all disposition to abrogate this divine law in the 
interest of human desires and whims would be aban- 
doned. This means, too, that natural laws, operat- 
ing in the human body and mind, as elsewhere, 
would be reverenced. Men would then look upon 
the violation of a law of health with at least as much 
horror as the violation of a church ordinance. They 
would broaden their view of sin to include all the 
gratifications of appetite that destroy physical vigor, 
and all the slothfulness of mind that perpetuate 
ignorance and prejudice. They would, in short, 



io6 The Child and His Religion 

eat religiously, clothe themselves religiously, found 
homes religiously, establish business and professional 
relationships religiously, and conduct all the enter- 
prises of individual and social life from a religious 
point of view. 

Shall it be said that there is already such a con- 
ception of religious adjustment to nature, directing 
the activities of the Sunday school and church? 
That series of sermons is rare, that course of reli- 
gious instruction is rare, that does not suggest to the 
minds of children and adults that the "natural" 
and the "supernatural" are antagonistic, and that 
religion has little, or nothing, to do with the natural 
order of things. Within three months, I have heard 
as many sermons that drew a sharp distinction be- 
tween the natural development of the child and the 
rehgious development. That is to say, God's work 
in human life was made to begin with special acts 
entirely outside of natural processes of mind. If 
this is not to separate God from the natural world, 
what can so separate him ? The result is, the most 
widespread confusion in thinking and conduct. In 
St. Petersburg there is today (August, 1908) an epi- 
demic of cholera. Hundreds are dying daily, and 
the distress and social chaos resulting from such 
an epidemic are showing their effects in every 
department of Russian life. What are the respective 
attitudes of science and Russian religion toward this 
natural phenomenon of cholera infection ? Science 
says the river Neva is foul with cholera germs, the 



Problem of Religious Education 107 

people are ignorant and careless, and the officials 
are remiss in their duties. The epidemic is due 
to polluted drinking-water and to general unsanitary 
conditions and habits of the people. Until these 
causes are removed, the epidemic must continue. 
The Russian priesthood says the epidemic is a 
punishment inflicted upon the Russian people for 
their sins in neglecting the ordinances of the church. 
They pay no attention to the polluted waters of 
the Neva, or the unsanitary conditions of the city. 
They offer prayers, instead, and exhort the people, 
not to greater care in obtaining their drinking-water 
and to greater cleanliness, but to rites of expiation 
for their sins. 

At the present moment, an extensive drouth is 
afflicting large sections of the United States. Streams 
of water are failing, mills are shutting down, forest 
fires are raging, wells are drying up, and general 
anxiety is felt as to the effects upon business, prop- 
erty, and life. Here is a situation more complex, 
perhaps, than the epidemic of cholera in St. Peters- 
burg. Weather phenomena are not so well under- 
stood as are those of disease. And yet it is probable 
that the more intelligent section of our population 
find a rational explanation for this drouth. Rainfall 
depends upon such causes as the evaporation of 
moisture from the earth's surface, the temperature 
of the atmosphere, the movement of air-currents, etc. 
There is very good reason why there should be no 
rainfall in a desert, and why, again, there should be 



io8 The Child and His Religion 

heavy rainfalls in certain other sections of the earth. 
No person with adequate knowledge and imagination, 
to say nothing of reverence, would think of hold- 
ing God responsible for a drouth, with all its conse- 
quences of inconvenience and suffering. Neverthe- 
less, we read in the daily press that in various places 
clergymen are assembling their congregations to 
pray for rain. What can be the mental state of these 
people who put God outside the natural processes 
of this world and think of him as either allowing, or 
causing, these processes to result in human distress, 
until his attitude is changed through the prayers of 
the afflicted ? 

The practical results of such views of nature and 
God are enormous. If a man's conscious relations 
to God are the core of his religion, and if his relations 
to nature are the immediate and vital concern of his 
daily life, is it any wonder that he gives up either his 
religion or his regard for natural law when these two 
things are not brought into harmony? That there 
are thousands of men and women in Christian com- 
munities who are in just this condition, is perfectly 
evident. On the one hand there are those who try 
to get their lives conformed to the requirements of 
natural law without being religious, at least in the 
ordinary sense of that term. On the other hand 
there are those who try to be religious without con- 
forming their lives to natural law. The extremes 
of these classes of people are illustrated on the one 
hand by the irreligionist and on the other by the Chris- 



Problem of Religious Education 109 

tian Scientist. The former has given up the idea of 
God, the latter has given up all regard for the natural 
order of things. 

This confusion of the understanding, and division 
of the great interests of life, begin in childhood, and 
defective education is largely responsible for it. 
Secular education, so-called, attempts to give the 
child his knowledge of the world in terms of the 
natural. It excludes all reference to supernatural 
origins and control of natural phenomena, and 
answers none of the questions we have found to 
spring from the natural religion of childhood. 
Religious education, so-called, attempts to give the 
child his knowledge of the world in terms of the 
supernatural. It excludes all reference to natural 
origins and control of supernatural phenomena. 
Neither attempts to educate the child into a point 
of view that the natural and the supernatural are not 
mutually exclusive. Thus the child is bewildered if 
he thinks at all; and if his understanding is so juggled 
with that he attempts no independent thinking, the 
results are equally bad. A boy of twelve years has 
had several terms of nature-study in the public 
schools, and is more or less rationalized in his atti- 
tude toward nature. He knows the elements of 
meteorology, and if asked to explain the cause of a 
drouth, he would give the explanation in terms of 
distribution of water-areas, forests, temperature, 
air-currents, and the like. But he attends church 
on Sunday and hears the pastor pray for rain. He 



no The Child and His Religion 

goes to Sunday school and is taught that God inter- 
poses, upon the proper request of men and women, 
and suspends the operation of natural forces, or 
changes their direction. What reconciliation can 
he make between this kind of divine relationship to 
the natural order, and the facts he has been taught in 
the public school ? Is it any wonder that he should 
become mentally, and even sometimes morally, con- 
fused ? If the processes of nature can be changed 
by the request of a clergyman or a Sunday-school 
teacher, what assurance has this boy that there is 
enough fixity in natural law to insure his own safety ? 
Is it strange that young people growing up under 
such conflicting instruction, should ultimately be 
driven to one or the other extreme already men- 
tioned ? 

I have dwelt thus lengthily upon this question of 
God's relation to natural law because it is typical of 
a large number of questions that must be disposed 
of before religious education can so much as define 
its aims. What profits it for a man to be religious 
at all, if he lives in a world where health and disease, 
sanity and insanity, intelligence and ignorance, 
thrift and improvidence depend upon the operation 
of natural laws, and yet the content of his religion — 
his God, his heaven, his worship — transcend these 
conditions, and neither stimulate him to master 
them nor help him in his impotent struggle against 
them? Surely the first aim of religious education 
should be to give children the kind of God that they 



Problem of Religious Education 



III 



can identify with the natural world in which they 
live, and the kind of attitude toward natural law as 
conditioning their physical and psychical powers 
which will make them reverently, and religiously, 
obedient to its demands. 

Material of religious education. — The material of 
religious education is determined by its aim. If, 
then, the aim is to effect a religious adjustment 
between the child and his environment, the material 
should be any, and all, elements of that environment. 
That is to say, everything in a child's surroundings 
should be interpreted religiously, and be made to 
yield religious instruction. Some elements of the 
environment of Christian civilization are more 
easily converted to this use than others. They have 
more definite religious associations; their character 
is such as will yield a religious content more readily. 
Such are the Bible and religious literature generally. 
Such, too, is the church with all its rites and observ- 
ances. No question is likely to be raised as to the 
necessity of including these elements in the culture- 
material of religion. But they are not sufficient. 
They are only a part of the environment of life. 
The remainder of that environment must be utilized 
religiously if it is to have a religious significance for 
the child at all. Thus science, art, literature, his- 
tory, the experiences of daily life — everything that 
comes within the environment of children — should 
be appropriated to religious uses. In no other way 
can the whole world be made to reveal its divine 



112 The Child and His Religion 

authorship, and to have a meaning that transcends 
the order of time and sense. If it be said that this 
makes the problem of rehgious educational material 
hopelessly complex, the reply is that it is readily 
solved by intelligent selection. Secular education 
must regard the whole of human environment, except 
such elements as have been peculiarly associated 
with religion. It is solving the problem of selecting 
typical forms of knowledge. Religious education 
could do as much. 

In brief, the ideal religious curriculum would be a 
body of material that summarized so-called secular 
knowledge and so-called religious knowledge and 
put the whole to religious use. If, as has been 
pointed out, there is but one world for the secular 
and for the religious life alike, and if the religious 
and secular concerns of men are merely different 
modes of reacting to the same world, then there is no 
other rational view to take of the material of religious 
education. This means that a thoroughly rational 
programme of religious education would differ from 
existing programmes of secular education only in the 
inclusion of the distinctive religious literatures of the 
world, and a more definitely religious attitude toward 
all bodies of knowledge. If this seems to blur the 
distinction between religious education and secular 
education, it may be acknowledged at once that 
such is its intent. If the public schools interpreted 
human experience to children in terms of religion, 
there would be no excuse for the existence of Sunday 



Problem of Religious Education 113 

schools. But since men, in their ignorance and prej- 
udice, have decreed that they will have their children 
educated in such an irrational, dualistic manner, it 
remains for religious educators to do what secular 
educators are not doing — give to each generation of 
children their entire heritage of racial experience, in 
terms that compass the needs of their whole life. 

The failure of religious educators to make their 
curricula sufficiently broad has been due to a narrow- 
ness of aim. So long as it is sought merely to adjust 
the life to a particular creed, or certain interpretations 
of the Bible, the choice of religious culture-material 
will be exclusively ecclesiastical and biblical. The 
penalty of thus narrowing the choice of the material 
of religious education is a heavy one and is now being 
exacted to the full. The present generation is sub- 
jecting creeds, and the Bible itself, to the most search- 
ing tests. Many, and profound, modifications are 
being made in men's beliefs. Meanwhile, the masses 
of the people, educated to have a certain regard for 
the Bible and their church creeds, are increasingly 
bewildered; and many of them are losing faith in all 
religion. There is not a church, perhaps, and hardly 
a community that is not now suffering from this 
unsettling of faith, due to changed interpretations 
of the Bible and modifications of creeds. 

The far-reaching significance of this situation is 
not yet fully realized. It is a law of the religious, no 
less than the biological, world, that life is measured 
by the complexity and duration of its environment. 



114 The Child and His Religion 

The less complex and permanent this environment 
is, the more feeble and perishing will be the life that 
depends upon it. Now the material of religious 
education is the principal element of the religious 
environment. It feeds the intellectual and emotional 
life of religion. It creates its atmosphere. It sup- 
plies the main conscious stimulus to action. If, 
then, this environment has been merely a creed or 
certain interpretations of Scripture, what must hap- 
pen when the creed and scriptural interpretations 
are rejected? As elsewhere in life, religion must 
perish with its environment. This is no far-fetched 
analogy between natural and spiritual laws. It has 
its illustration and proof all about us. I knew an 
old man in the Middle West whose religious faith 
seemed to be entirely bound up with the doctrine 
of immersion. One day a man came into the neigh- 
borhood with a Greek New Testament and a little 
knowledge of exegesis. He convinced the old man 
that a certain phrase had been wrongly translated, 
and that Jesus did not go down into the water but 
merely to the side of the water. The result was 
that the old man became unsettled in his faith, 
stopped attending church, and finally, as he believed, 
lost his religion. Here was a case of a minute, 
fragile religious environment, with a religious life 
dependent upon it. This environment had been 
created by the man's faulty religious education. 
When it perished, the man's faith in all religion 
perished with it. 



Problem of Religious Education 115 

The only sure preventive of such tragedies in 
religious belief, is for religious educators to create, 
through their choice of culture-material, an environ- 
ment that shall be universal and eternal. If there 
were no other reason for the creation of this new, and 
larger, environment for religion, it would be justified 
as a prophylactic against the numerous spiritual 
distempers that are now threatening to become 
epidemic as a result of the Higher Criticism. The 
Bible has been the sacred Palladium of Christianity 
throughout the centuries. The "unholy hands" of 
critical scholarship are now being laid upon it. 
There is grave danger for the religion that has been 
made so intimately to depend upon the Bible unless 
a new, and broader, environment can be created in 
which religious faith may find its home. 

Method of religious education. — ^The method of 
religious education is determined by its material. 
If, as has been pointed out, this material should be 
drawn from the entire environment of the child, 
then ought the method to be as diverse as that 
environment. In other words, since the child's 
whole life reacts religiously to the world about it, so 
should the method of religious instruction insure 
complete self-expression. This is the essence of all 
rational method in education, because it is nature's 
own way of training every living creature. From 
the unicellular animal to man himself, life is fash- 
ioned through the complete self-expression of the 
individual. In so far as courses of religious instruc- 



ii6 The Child and His Religion 

tion are conducted according to this \miversal prin- 
ciple, will they effectively accomplisH their purposes. 
Experience, whether in the form of knowledge or 
otherwise, cannot become truly educative unless it 
involves the activity of the self, and the whole self. 

Self-expression takes three forms : feeling-response, 
intellectual response, and motor response, or response 
through conduct. Feeling response, otherwise called 
interest, has already been discussed in chap. i. It is 
the form of self-activity that makes the mind and the 
life receptive, and prepares the individual to assimilate 
experience. The spontaneous interests of children 
are the natural responses to stimuli that are felt to 
have significance. It is as true pedagogically as it 
is scripturally, that "out of the heart are the issues 
of life." The recognition and intelligent use of this 
form of self-expression in children is of the utmost 
importance. If feeling-response, or interest, is 
neglected or crushed out, the tendency is to weaken 
the child's selfhood and destroy the personal initia- 
tive that is so essential to a vigorous life. On the 
other hand if attempts are made to stimulate arti- 
ficially this feeling-response, there is danger of 
emotional precocity and perversion. This danger is 
especially great in those types of religious instruction 
that are intended to lead up to "conversion." Here 
premature feelings mean premature decay of feelings, 
or perversion in the direction of mental disease. 

Again, the method of religious education should 
insure self-activity in thinking. The power of 



Problem of Religious Education 117 

selective thought is as important for religious as for 
other functions of life. To get the symbols of truth 
into the mind, whether these symbols be the words 
of the Bible or of a creed, avails nothing at all unless 
the soul reacts to them with the intelhgence that 
comes from significant experience. Words are dead 
things unless we have that in our minds which can 
vitalize them. Religious instruction that does not 
deal with material to which the minds of students 
can react intelligently, arrests the power of thought, 
produces apathy of feeling, and therefore destroys 
the capacity for seeking truth and the interest in it. 
For this reason, the selection of biblical material 
that lies too much outside of children's actual experi- 
ence, and the dogmatic attitude that is indifferent to 
free individual thought in young people and adults, 
render imbecile the intellectual life of any church, 
and condemn it to hopeless inferiority in religious 
standards and conduct. There is no sphere of life 
where abridgment of self-expression is more fatal to 
human growth and achievement than in the intel- 
lectual order. 

Finally, the method of religious education should 
insure a motor expression of righteousness. That is 
to say, it should involve religious conduct. It is all 
very well to feel righteously and to think righteously, 
but the final test of both is the deed. How to make 
religion motor and executive is indeed one of the 
greatest of problems, personally and socially. It 
was Shakspere who said: "If 'twere as easy to do, 



ii8 The Child aruTHis Religion 

as it is to know what ought to be done, then chapels 
had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' 
palaces." Religious educators must broaden their 
curricula and their methods in a way that will help 
boys and girls, and men and women, to work out 
their religious feelings and ideas. The heterogene- 
ous manual exercises over sand-maps, the singing in 
choirs or performing other functions in the Sunday 
school, the taking part in young people's meetings, 
etc., will not suffice. These activities may be valu- 
able, or worthless, according to the spirit and condi- 
tions under which they are performed. Motor, or 
executive, righteousness must come nearer to life 
than these activities can possibly come. It must be 
of a type that affects the character of the doer and 
that of his fellow-men. It must take the form of 
doing deeds of virtue, honesty, kindness, patriotism, 
and the like. A church and Sunday school that can 
make their religious instruction efficient through an 
organized body of righteous workers, in the home, 
business, politics, and throughout social life every- 
where will have realized this ideal. The outcome 
of education in objective results that embody the 
ideas and impulses imparted through instruction, is 
the present aim, and often the accomplished fact, of 
our best public schools. There is no good reason 
why the same should not be true of the agencies of 
religious education.^ 

I The last two paragraphs are largely quoted from an article 
on "The Child's Self -Expression and Religious Education," 
published by the writer in Religious Education, August, 1906. 



Problem of Religious Education 119 

Conclusion. — This chapter on the problem of 
religious education has been theoretical and general 
in character. No attempt has been made to indicate 
the details of a working programme that would em- 
body the aim, subject-matter, and method of religious 
education that have been suggested. In conclusion, 
however, I desire to state that essentially such a 
programme has long since been submitted to the 
test of experience, and is now in successful operation 
in our midst. To direct the attention of my readers 
to such a concrete embodiment of my ideals, will, 
I am sure, render them a more practical service, 
than to give a verbal description of a programme. 
I refer to the kindergarten system and to the institu- 
tion known as the Young Men's Christian Associa- 
tion. In the chapter on "The Natural Religion of 
Children," I expressed the conviction that FroebePs 
philosophy of education, and the kindergarten sys- 
tem based upon it, afford the best existing approach 
to a kind of education for little children that will at 
once conserve their natural religion and bring that 
religion into harmony with a scientific interpretation 
of their environment and their own lives. In the 
best type of kindergartens, we find at least the begin- 
nings of just such an education as this chapter has 
contemplated. There the aim is religious adjust- 
ment of the child to his entire environment. The 
material is composed of significant and typical ele- 
ments selected from such environment; and the 
method is designed to insure complete self-expression. 



120 The Child and His Religion 

In the Young Men's Christian Association, we 
have an institution that, in a different field, incor- 
porates identical principles. The aim of this insti- 
tution, at its best, is to effect a religious adjustment 
between young men and the entire environment of 
their lives. The Association badge, with its inscrip- 
tion "Body, mind, spirit," symbolizes this aim. 
Under favorable conditions, we find a building, equip- 
ments, course of study, and opportunities for a variety 
of activities, that provide for a breadth and complexity 
of religious training that is unequaled in any other 
institution. We find also that this material is pre- 
sented to the members of the Association in a many- 
sided manner. An appeal is made to every form of 
self-activity — feeling, intellect, motor-activities, con- 
duct. It is not contended that the Young Men's Chris- 
tian Association is a perfected institution. It will not 
compare with the public schools, colleges, churches, 
and various other institutions in specific features of its 
work. But in the breadth of its aim, in the eclectic 
and comprehensive character of the educational 
environment it creates for young men, and in the 
freedom and spontaneity of spirit it evokes, it has 
seized upon principles that are fundamental and final 
for religious education. It is my conviction that the 
typical kindergarten and the typical Young Men's 
Christian Association illustrate what is thus far the 
best statement of the problem of religious education 
and constitute the most consistent attempts at its 
solution. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Adolescence, intellectual and emo- 
tional characteristics of, 75-77; 
appeal of prophetic and literary 
books of the Bible to, 75-77; ap- 
peal of gospels to, 76-77; interest 
of, in Jesus, 88-91, conversion in, 
66-67, 90-Qi; religious education 
of, 94. 

Age, as affecting the child's attitude 
toward school studies, 20, 74; to- 
ward the Old and the New Testa- 
ment, 57 ff.; toward the different 
books of the Bible, 69 ff.; toward 
Bible scenes, stories, and characters, 
77 ff.; toward Jesus, 85 ff. 

Animism, in primitive men, 32; in 
children, 32-35; in adults of civili- 
zation, 35-36; interpretation of, 
35-36. 

Atkinson, on children's reading inter- 
est, 65, 66. 

Atrophy, as a biological phenomenon, 
12; illustrated in the chick's peck- 
ing interest, t2; in the child's 
walking interest, 12-13; applica- 
tion to moral and religious interests, 
14. 

Bacon, on natural religion, 26. 

Barnes, Professor Earle, on elementary 
intellectual interests, 20; on chil- 
dren's ideals, 21; on the sense of 
causality, 41. 

Barnes, Mrs.. Mary Sheldon, on chil- 
dren's historical interests, 20, 74, 84. 

Bible, place of, in religious education, 
53-55; rational use of, 54-55; 
children's attitude toward, 56-57; 
children's choice between the Old 
and the New Testament, 57-69; 
among the books of, 69-77; among 
the scenes, stories, and characters 
of, 77-85; stages of racial develop- 
ment reflected in, 63-88; need of 
supplementing the Bible in religious 
experience, 113-15. 

Binet, on elementary intellectual in- 
terests, 20. 

Bolton, on memory for numbers, 74. 

Burke, Mrs., on play interests, 20. 

Causality, the instinct of, 36-41; 
Ratzels views of, 37-58; von 
Hartmann's views of, 36; Sully's 
views of, 40; Barnes's views of, 41. 



Characters, interest of children in, 80- 
85. 

Chase, Miss, on reading interests, 20. 

Children, instinctive qualities of, 63- 
64; sensory and motor development 
of, 64-65; natural religion of, 25 ff.; 
animism in, 32-36; instinct of 
causality in, 36-41; instinct of im- 
mortality in, 42-46; faith and good- 
will in, 46-51; natural interests of 
as emphasized by the educational 
reformers, 1-7; psychological sig- 
nificance of children's interests, 8; 
biological significance of children's 
interests, 9-14; appeal of New 
Testament to, 58-62; appeal of 
Old Testament to, 63-66, 73-75. 

Comenius, educational views of, 5-7; 
views on the natural religion of 
children, 26-27. 

Darrah, on children's ideals, 21. 
David, pre-adolescent interest in, 87- 

Education, aim of secular, 102; aim 
of religious, 103-11; material of 
secular, 102; material of religious, 
111-15; method of secular, 103; 
method of religious, 11 5-1 8; the 
kindergarten and, 29-30, 119; The 
Young Men's Christian Association 
and, 119—20. 

Edwards, Jonathan, on the natural 
man, 15. 

Ellis and HaU, on play interests, 20. 

Faith, as an element of the child's 

religion, 46-51. 
Froebel, on natural religion, 28-30. 

Gates, Miss, on musical interests, 20. 

Gilbert, on development of children, 
64. 

Good-will, as an element in the child's 
religion, 46-51. 

Gould, on children's animism, 34. 

Gulick, on play interests, 20; on con- 
version, 67, 91. 

Hall, on play interests, 20; on the 
contents of children's minds, 40-41. 

Hancock, on children's ability to 
reason, 66. 



123 



124 The Child and His Religion 



Herbart, doctrine of interest formu- 
lated by, 8, 9. 

Immortality, the instinct of, 42-46; 
Sully's views of, 42; Street's views 
of, 44-45; racial economy of, 45- 
46; significance of, for the child, 46. 

Interest, and the educational re- 
formers, 1-8; Herbart's doctrine 
of, 8, 9; the biological conception 
of, 9-1 1 ; sequence of, 11-12; atro- 
phy of, 12-14; opposition to doc- 
trine of, 14-19; study of, by secular 
educators, 19-21; attitude of reli- 
gious educators toward, 21-24. 

James, view of relation between atten- 
tion and will, 17. 
Jegi, on children's ideals, 21. 
Jesus, children's interest in, 85-91. 

Kindergarten, as an embodiment of 
both rehgious and scientific ideals in 
education, 29-30, 119-20. 

Lancaster, on altruistic feeling, 66; 
on prophetic spirit of adolescence, 
76; on loyalty to Jesus, 89. 

Lindley, on complex intellectual in- 
terests, 21. 

Monroe, Professor Paul, on mediaeval 
conception of education, 3-4. 

Monroe, Professor Will S., on chil- 
dren's ideals, 21. 

Montaigne, protest of, against edu- 
cation of his time, 5. 

Natural religion, the doctrine of in- 
terest and, 25-30; science and, 30- 
32; elements of, 32-52; significance 
of , for religious experience, 104-10. 

O'Shea, on interest in pictures, myths, 
etc., 21. 

Pestalozzi, on natural religion, 27-28. 
Plutarch, on natural religion, 37. 
Pre-adolescence, interest of, in David, 
87. 



Rabelais, satire of, on monastic edu- 
cation, 4, 5. 

Ratzel, on the instinct of causality, 37- 
38. 

Reflex acti\'ities, the correlative in- 
terests of, 10, II. 

Religion, natural to the child, 25; con- 
ception of children's reUgion held 
by educational reformers, 25-30; 
impHcations of, in scientific knowl- 
edge, 30-31 ; ethnological study and, 
31-32; genetic psychology and, 32. 

Religious education, complexity of 
the problem of, 99-101; suggestions 
from secular education, 102-103; 
aim of, 103-11; material of, 111-15; 
method of, 115-18; succesrful types 
of, 119-20. 

Rousseau, educational views of, 7, 8. 

Scripture, Professor, on time-memory, 

75- 
Sex, rise of interests in, 12; dififer- 

ences in biblical interests according 

to, 60, 61, 72, 73, 78, 80, 81, 86, 98. 
Shaw, on primary intellectual interests, 

20. . 
Speech, rise of interest in, 11. 
Starbuck, on conversion, 66. 
Stories, interest of children in, 79-80. 
Street, on the instinct of immortality, 

44; on language training, 74. 
Sully, on the instinct of causality, 40; 

on the instinct of immortality, 42. 

Taylor, on interest in the public-school 

ciuriculum, 20. 
Tylor, on animism, 44^^ ^^ 

von Hartmaim, on the instinct of cau- 
sality, 38. 

Walking interests, 11, 12, 13. 

Ward, Miss, on geographical interests, 

20, 74, 84. 
Will, in relation to interest, 16-18; in 

relation to attention, 17. 
Wissler, on reading interests, 20. 



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